Head to head · same category, comparable price
Ardbeg 10 Year Old vs Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour is the cheaper bottle and the dearer whisky: £150 a litre of pure alcohol against £149. That inversion is the whole of this comparison.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Ardbeg 10 Year Old | Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Single malt | Single malt |
| Origin | Islay, Scotland | Islands, Scotland |
| Age | 10 years | 12 years |
| Strength | 46% ABV | 40% ABV |
| Cask | Ex-bourbon barrel | Sherry-seasoned American oak, ex-bourbon |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £48 | £42 |
| Per 10cl | £6.86 | £6.00 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £149 | £150 |
| Chill-filtered | No | Not stated |
What separates them
Both from Scotland: Ardbeg 10 Year Old from Islay, Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour from Islands.
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour states 12 years, 2 more on paper.
Cask as each producer describes it: Ardbeg 10 Year Old in ex-bourbon barrel, Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour in sherry-seasoned american oak and ex-bourbon.
Chill filtration: Ardbeg 10 Year Old is not, Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour does not say.
Colour: Ardbeg 10 Year Old natural colour, Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour silent.
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour: specifications not yet producer-confirmed.
What the price buys
Ardbeg 10 Year Old is £6.00 dearer a bottle than Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour.
Strength reverses that: Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour is £150 a litre of pure alcohol against £149.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Ardbeg 10 Year Old is 18th cheapest and Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour 19th cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Ardbeg 10 Year Old | Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 9 | 4 |
| Sweet | 3 | 6 |
| Fruity | 4 | 5 |
| Spicy | 5 | 4 |
| Woody | 4 | 5 |
| Sherried | 1 | 5 |
| Cereal | 4 | 5 |
| Oily | 7 | 6 |
Furthest apart on peaty, 9 against 4, then sherried, 1 against 5. 3 of the eight axes clear 3 points: peaty, sherried and sweet.
Each bottle in its own right
Ardbeg 10 Year Old
Tar, lime and soot, then a long smoked-vanilla finish. Bracing rather than comfortable.
Ardbeg's own page states the whisky is matured solely in ex-bourbon casks and is non-chill filtered, with no sherry component at all — unusual for a flagship Islay malt. It is bottled at 46% where most competitors at the price sit at 40%.
Full record →Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour
Heather smoke and honey in balance. The best-balanced malt at its price.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Ardbeg 10 Year Old for first serious peated malt and value at 46%, Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour for all-rounder and bridge to peated whisky.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Ardbeg 10 Year Old and Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour: ardbeg.com, highlandparkwhisky.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.