Name: Highland Park – 16 Year Twisted Tattoo
Color: Light Yellow
Nose: Malted barley, citrus, flowers
Taste: Malted barley, orange, smoke/pepper, red wine
Review:
Highland Park 16 Year Twisted Tattoo is another expression in the Viking series by the Highland Park Distillery (aka the marketing team). I have previously reviewed the Valkyrie expression and I was not very impressed and there now seems to be a pattern developing in my reviews of this series.The scotch is a single malt bottled at 46.7% abv, naturally colored, and aged in Spanish Rioja wine casks and first fill bourbon casks. The Spanish Rioja is a nice twist, but I have it on good authority that Spaniards keep their good Rioja in house and ship the crap stuff to the rest of the world. I question the quality of the wine that imparted the flavor on this scotch. I found the nose and taste to be very similar which in my experience is not a good sign and the wine taste to be nothing special. Basically, this stuff is “ok” at best.
The art on the bottle is by a Danish Tattoo artists Colin Dale and it represents the Midgard Serpent. The seperant is the classic “snake eating its tail” which represents an unending circle. This circle is believed by some to represent the continuous circle of life. I believe, and this is just my opinion, Highland Park must have lost out to Johnnie Walker in obtaining the marketing rights to “Game of Thrones”. So instead they created this dual edged bullshit marketing campaign. You get little history of the Scottish with the Viking origins info and a little feel of the G.O.T. Have I mentioned before that I am half Scottish? We are descendants of Vikings but it is not brought up much because it would piss off the people from Iceland.
I can just hear it now……”Paging Mr. Draper to the Highland Park Distillery main conference room……you marketing presentation is about to begin…..”
Priced around $90 and it is ok but over priced for marketing reasons and the age. Maybe Odin’s adopted son Loki made this stuff? He is the God of Trickery. Thanks to Frankie for letting me try this one without paying!
If you like it, drink it! – Christopher
If you like it, drink it!
