REVIEW: Highland Park’s “Thor” Scotch Whiskey

We are greatly honored to have Michael Stackpole, author of the X-Wing series, I, Jedi, a slew of Battletech novels, the recent Conan movie novelization, and an upcoming Warcraft novel. He’s a dedicated author who has taught me much in my quest to be a legitimate author and I’ve had the great fortune to consider him a mentor and a friend.

The opportunity to try this was complicated by my geography, but Mike was kind enough to offer a review.

You really need to visit Mike’s website and buy his books. In particular, check out In Hero Years… I’m Dead. It’s the book you’d get if Dashiell Hammett wrote Watchmen.

But without further ado, here’s Mike:

I’m a writer, so it probably comes as a surprise to very few that I a) drink and b) enjoy whisky. Over the last decade, in the name of research for books, I’ve set out to sample a variety of whiskies and to develop my sense of them. Malcolm Gladwell talks about “slicing” in his book Blink. It’s basically learning enough about a subject that you can detect differences where others just don’t have the catalog of experience to judge things that finely. Whisky, and especially Scotch Whisky, is something I have happily learned as much as I can about.

At Origins, Bryan Young was lamenting the fact that Highland Park had offered to send him a bottle of their limited release whisky, Thor, for review, but that because he resides in Utah, they weren’t allow to ship it to him. Perhaps one of the tinier benefits to living in the wild west of Arizona is that state law allows folks to ship me almost anything. I mentioned I’d be happy to accept the shipment for him, and said I could get it to him at a future convention. Bryan, gentleman and scholar that he is, sent my address to Highland Park, and Thor arrived this morning.

Before I get to the actual whisky, I have to say that the packaging blew me away. It arrives in a great looking box, but the bottle carrier inside steals the show. It’s a wooden enclosure, styled after Viking Longboat designs. It’s hinged in the back and makes for a stunning presentation. The packaging alone makes it look like something that should be stored on an altar, used only at a god’s behest.

To begin with, Thor is a beautiful amber gold, rich and warm. The whisky has some weight to it, too, not swirling around the glass like water. When you do swirl it, legs form nicely and flow slowly down. There is no mistaking this for a hotel mini-bar whisky from a tiny bottle. This is serious stuff.

For me, the nose is really important. Thor has it in spades. It’s a full aroma that fills the nose without making your eyes water. There’s smoke there, but not at the expense of other scents. Definitely not overpoweringly peaty. There’s lighter and cleaner scents beneath that, quite fresh. I tend to judge these things by the kind of day/evening the scent suggests I’d best enjoy drinking the whisky. This is definitely a spring/fall evening whisky, not too hot or cold.

The taste. Best thing about Thor is that the flavor is complex, and comes at you in swirls. Flavors flit over the tongue like ghosts. The second you taste some vanilla, it’s gone and berries slip in to replace it. There’s a great balance of spices and fruits, but with the smoke uniting them all. And, as befits the viscosity, the flavors linger. This Scotch is a joy to savor, able to surprise and delight even halfway through the glass.

The finish is all that the nose and taste demand. Soft, playful and sweet for the flavors. And at 16 years of age, Thor is incredibly smooth. That’s very important as far as I’m concerned because I don’t want to feel the whisky burning all the way down my throat. This doesn’t. It just glows on the tongue and throat—the equal in this department of other whiskies 2-4 years older than it is.