The magnificent single malt whisky of Highland Park will now be served from a new bottle
Designed to evoke Orkney’s Norse heritage, the core range 12 year-old expression is now titled Viking Honour.
New Name, Same Excellent Whisky
The name added to Highland Park’s traditional 12 year-old age statement single malt and the embossed glass relief imagery on its new bottle, hark back to an imagined history much older than the Victorian era suggested by the bottle it is replacing.
It will also be used for their European market 10 year-old, now named Viking Scar. The fabulous 18 year-old expression will be getting the new bottle and the name Viking Pride, later this year.
The previous, quasi-nineteenth century bottle of elegant understated design will be missed. But the folks at Highland Park felt it looked too much like a bottle of American bourbon. And that is exactly what I thought when it first appeared, before I got used to it and came to like it.
Although it was hardly traditional, I very much loved the bottle that held Highland Park when I discovered the singular spirit in my earliest drinking days, which had a map of the Orkney Islands embossed on the bottom of its base.
The soon to be retired bottle with the one that came before it.
Forward into the Past
The new bottle is quite lovely to look at, with a new line that is not radically different from its predecessor, and the artwork was inspired by the impressive iconographs decorating a church in Norway believed to be from about 1130, and now an official UNESCO World Heritage site.
While some say this is the Lion of Christ defeating Satan in serpent form, it looks to me more like hound or possibly a horse, and I will not be surprised if HP’s modern day lore masters declare the serpents to be wyrms aka wingless dragons known to inhabit those parts back in the day.
Orkney was a Norwegian Earldom for centuries, which evolved from the original Viking settlers who either transplanted or intermarried with the Pictish occupants living there since the late Bronze Age. The islands were not ceded to the King of Scotland until the 1400s, as partial payment for a broken marriage agreement between the two kingdoms, something that happened quite often between Scotland and Norway in the medieval times. I mean the marriages between the Scottish and Norwegian royal families, not the broken engagements.
So the new bottle, and Highland Park’s brand revamping to focus on all things Viking isn’t just coming from the drawing board of some Aldwych and Kingsway ad exec. It comes directly from the rich and often turbulent history of Orkney itself.
The best news, for me, about all this, is that the core range of Highland Park expressions is remaining single malt whisky aged entirely in sherry barrels.
But outside the core range they are introducing exciting expressions that combine sherry-aged Highland Park with HP from American bourbon barrels, and two new expressions made entirely from ex-bourbon barrels!
Highland Park is adapting their looks and legends while looking progressively to the future and making the best of it they can.
And that is one man’s word on …
Highland Park’s New Bottle and Viking Branding
Other Reading:
Highland Park – Big Changes Ahead in 2017 – new expressions in a new look
Highland Park Valkyrie Expression in the New Viking Legend Series
Official UNESCO Urnes Stave Church Registry Page
Our HP Reviews
The new Viking Honor 12 is distinctly different from the previous 12 yr. it seems to have less sherry cask influence. The “older” expression is richer with a longer finish. I can easily tell the difference in 2 separate blind tastings comparing them.
I could not agree more.
They claimed HP 12 remained the same, and that only the bottle changed. But that is obviously rubbish. Technically it might be said that this just happens to be the latest batch of HP 12, since ALL single malt expressions from all distilleries change from one batch to the next, so they evolve over time. (And no, I will never call these expressions by their silly Viking marketing names.)
But there is no doubt there is less first-fill sherry casks involved in the current 12 year old expression than any previous one I have had the past 30 years. And I would say there is less European oak involved as well.
While that is definitely a sad thing to have to say, it is still very good whisky. And since they are intelligent in their pricing in the U.S., I cannot say there is another scotch of any type at the $50 price point that is as good a bargain as HP 12. This is truer all the time, as so many other labels are now closer to $70 than $50 and HP 12 can still be found under $50 at times.
But the current 12 is not nearly as lovely as previous editions, and far different from the stuff I fell in love with in the 1990s than even the stuff they were putting out two years ago.