Burgers and wings on the grill, agitating meat atoms spitting out aromas of smoky flesh. Mouthwatering. The Scotch & Ponder crew decided to splurge tonight on their first evening together since 2019. We had a few options for some C$200 bottles, but Simon has been caught up on the Highland Park 18 hype for years now and he had his way.
Scott gets apples on the nose, a little citrus. Hint of smoke.
Sean calls it candy apple.
Trevor a little sea salt.
Simon gets the apple and the smoke. Gets a little bit of molasses kind of smell too.
Scott thinks of it more as a syrup or butterscotch.
On the first sip green apples pops up to Kyle. Golden Delicious for Scott.
There's definitely a consensus on the smoky apple flavor, Trevor gets more of a pear rather than apple. Simon wants to call it more a plumb. Kyle doesn't get the smoke as much.
Everyone with the exception of Simon likes the spice level. Too much for Simon.
Simon can appreciate the transition that happens on the finish, a little oaky.
A reminder for those reading through, these reviews are by amateurs for amateurs, a more down to earth and relatable experience than the high flung expert tastings we commonly find online and on the back of bottles. Something you can rely on to make decisions about which scotch you want in your cabinet. We've also got 5 pallets here, so you can trust that where we overlap is what you will likely get out of the scotch as well.
Time for ratings:
There's a pretty good consensus on this one. Everyone likes this scotch enough that if it were a mid-range priced bottle, they would have it on their shelves. The problem is it isn't mid-range, at C$200 this is by far the most expensive bottle we've gotten so far. The flavors are complex and balanced with some smoke, some fruit, some salt, some heat, but Bowmore 12 has all these features as well, for a quarter of the price. Honestly, the Scotch & Ponder crew might be missing something, but they wouldn't recommend this for anyone on a budget. We've got Trevor and Simon with 70s, Scott with 74, and Sean and Kyle with 78s here today, for a 74 average. Everyone likes it, no one can justify the money and really understand what the perfect ratings we find online are supposed to represent.
Cheers!
The Scotch & Ponder crew

20/08/28 Edit: After further tasting and reconsideration, Simon reduces his rating to 3.4. Too spicy and disappointing, he would rather the HP 12.
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