[April, 2018]  I traded this bottle for an almost full Springbank 12-years old cask strength (edition 2018) that I did not like.  We will see if I like this one better...

The colour is old gold and the texture shows fat tears with medium fast legs.  The nose shows a sweet malt-driven profile with some herbs and spices and a somewhat sweet&sour-winey spike (that I do not like but it is not annoying either).  There are some hints of sulphurous aromas in this nose, too.  The mouthfeel is warming and coating with a distracting drying feeling (cardboards, old papers).  The taste is very sweet on barley sugars and honey flavours with some over-ripe fruits, spices and the sweet&sour winey aromas again.  Not too complex, but easy to sip.  The finish is of medium length and quite drying with this unpleasant cardboardy feeling that dominates the aftertaste, too bad.  Water releases more of the sulphurous notes - so forget about it!

Actually, the vatting composition is quite good but unfortunately they added some below-average casks that contributed an unpleasant drying cardboardyness.  And at least one of the sherry casks in this batch was sulphury...

Nose: really subtile nose, typical highland park smoke comes trough very weakly. Lots of pineapple, kiwi and a hint of custard.

Taste: again a lot of pineapple and a slightly peppery touch (jalapeno). Some coconut as well and lots of vanilla. Taste of roasted marshmellows and bananas in front of a campfire, although the smoke stays really in the background on this one. After having it in the mouth fir some time it becomes really waxy.

Finish: Quite short with a bit of pepper again. The sharpess of the pepper contrasts wonderfull with the really mellow mouthfeel. A bit of nutmeg as well after a few seconds.

Conslusion: For me this HP stays a little to "gentle". It's an easy drinking dram but for me it misses a bit the HP punch that I'm used to.

Score 82/100

NATURAL CASK-DRIVEN COLOUR
(NO ADDITIVES)
Light and golden (average colour tint 10.8)FLAVOURSCitrus fruits | Vanilla | Peppery spices | Heather peat | Light smoke
StoryThe Rebus novels have been translated into 36 languages and are much-loved, global bestsellers, so we were delighted to be invited to collaborate with Ian Rankin to celebrate this important anniversary of a great literary creation, with a very special edition of Highland Park. Our 10 Year Old single malt was selected as the perfect tribute to an iconic detective who, like our whisky, truly stands apart. REBUS30 10 Year Old celebrates strong and independent spirits who know their own mind… and, like that irascible rogue Rebus, aren’t afraid to speak it!

“Best shared with friends or while enjoying a dark crime novel!”(Highland Park)

It is an exclusive Highland Park 10 Year Old single malt Scotch whisky created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of John Rebus, one of crime fiction’s best loved creations by author Ian Rankin. But now it turns out to be a standard 10 with a fancy label.