3.25/5 31st May 2023 (modified from @drrhcmadden on Distiller)
N: Slightly waxy. Vanilla and fudgey depths layer with malt to make a bakery/pastry sensation. A slight mineral note contributes to a more nuanced character with a citrus peel and wood spice. The light peat is a nice backing that wafts through but it perhaps lacks the signature HP herbal-floral character you would expect. A simple nose, but it works well enough.
P: Interesting. A mirror of the nose but with a little chaotic buzz to it. Some slightly sweet smoke notes build then quickly change direction to a little spicy heat. Vanilla cream is the central thread that links the chaos and amongst it all there is, toasty malt, a little brown sugar, coconut, stone fruit and some herbal-bbq notes carried in by the peat smoke.
F: Medium. The malt is most apparent here, it gets quite dry and woody and maybe leans a little into the coconut, and possibly even charred pineapple.
Full Volume. An interesting marketing twist from HP, away from the typical viking garb. Picking this up, I was thinking Spinal Tap and turning it all the way up to 11. I thought someone was going to burst through the wall like the Kool Aid Man and beat me over the head with an electric guitar. I thought wrong. This felt lazy. HP has a remarkable delicacy and powerful grasp of you when done well; not so much here. Rather, despite a clean and simple nose, and little buzzy palate, the rest was dull by normal HP standards. I don’t know if the 17 y/o age statement and safe/dull profile is a reflection of using up stocks or an experiment gone wrong but this isn’t HP, and it is certainly nothing you would expect for 17 years, especially compared to the 17 light and (magical) dark expressions. Sadly the best of HP, the heathery peat, is a mere shadow of its normal glory, and the richness imparted by the normal sherry casks is sorely lacking. This is Highland Park dialled down to an inoffensive 5, not a full volume 11.
