Highland Park Thor

52.1% abv

Score:  90.5/100

The mighty Thor.  A rather impressive entry into the Highland Park echelon, to be honest.  If you’ve been following along with the distillery’s output in recent times you’ll likely have noticed a bent towards not just a tie to the Norse / Viking side of things, but an outright embracing of it.

Thor is the first release in what Highland Park has dubbed the Valhalla Collection.  This is to be a four part limited edition collection.  Now…let’s just hope the shoddy debacle that resulted from the execution of Highland Park’s Magnus series is not replicated here.  Said issue concerned the first release of that series being ~6,000 bottles, the second ~12,000 bottles and the third….a mere ~3,300 bottles.  As you can imagine, the net result was a lot of Highland Park fans being unable to round out their collections, and none the happier for it. 

In this case, Thor debuted with a huge production run of 23,000 bottles.  The second Valhalla release, Loki, came in at 21,000 bottles (uh oh).  Let’s see where the next two end up.  Hopefully there’s a form of redemption in this one.

I’m not here to gripe, though.  Merely to provide a bit of forewarning to those out there who may not have followed the earlier saga.  Caveat emptor.  That and, of course, to share a few tasting notes with those out there who are about to hand over their hard-earned dollars.  Is Thor a worthwhile purchase?  Depending on the price point you’re comfortable with…yes.  This is a really good whisky.  Highland Park firing on all cylinders, to be sure.   

Wanna know what this one is like?  Let’s get ‘er done.

Nose:  Smoky, peaty and malty.  Some straw or hay notes.  Pepper. Somewhat porridge-y or oatmeal-y. Honeyed ham.  More thick honey and a meaty, almost marmite-like, note.  Beef Ringolos (like Beef Oxo almost).  Old cigar box.  Pretty sure there is some older whisky vatted in here.

Palate:  More peat and smoke than expected.  A little less forgiving on the palate.  Astringent almost.  Sponge toffee with spice (??).  Anise.  Smoked wood at the back end.  16 year old malt must be the youngest in here.  There definitely seems to be notes of more mature whisky in this vatting.

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt