Head to head · same category, comparable price
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour vs Laphroaig Quarter Cask
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour is the cheaper bottle and the dearer whisky: £150 a litre of pure alcohol against £131. That inversion is the whole of this comparison.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour | Laphroaig Quarter Cask | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Single malt | Single malt |
| Origin | Islands, Scotland | Islay, Scotland |
| Age | 12 years | No age statement |
| Strength | 40% ABV | 48% ABV |
| Cask | Sherry-seasoned American oak, ex-bourbon | Ex-bourbon barrel, American oak quarter cask |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £42 | £44 |
| Per 10cl | £6.00 | £6.29 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £150 | £131 |
| Chill-filtered | Not stated | Not stated |
What separates them
Both from Scotland: Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour from Islands, Laphroaig Quarter Cask from Islay.
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour states 12 years; Laphroaig Quarter Cask states none.
Cask as each producer describes it: Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour in sherry-seasoned american oak and ex-bourbon, Laphroaig Quarter Cask in ex-bourbon barrel and american oak quarter cask.
Neither states chill filtration.
Neither set of specifications is producer-confirmed.
What the price buys
Laphroaig Quarter Cask is £2.00 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 £131.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour is 19th cheapest and Laphroaig Quarter Cask 12th cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour | Laphroaig Quarter Cask |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 4 | 9 |
| Sweet | 6 | 4 |
| Fruity | 5 | 3 |
| Spicy | 4 | 6 |
| Woody | 5 | 6 |
| Sherried | 5 | 1 |
| Cereal | 5 | 4 |
| Oily | 6 | 8 |
Furthest apart on peaty, 4 against 9, then sherried, 5 against 1. 2 of the eight axes clear 3 points: peaty and sherried.
Each bottle in its own right
Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour
Heather smoke and honey in balance. The best-balanced malt at its price.
Full record →Laphroaig Quarter Cask
Laphroaig with the volume up — more oak, more sweetness, considerably more grip at 48%.
Double matured: standard ex-bourbon barrels, then re-racked into smaller quarter casks whose greater wood-to-spirit surface area speeds maturation. Laphroaig publishes no ABV, and one UK retailer lists 41.4% — that is a data error; 48% is confirmed by two independent retailers.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour for all-rounder and bridge to peated whisky, Laphroaig Quarter Cask for value at 48% and peat lovers.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour and Laphroaig Quarter Cask: highlandparkwhisky.com, laphroaig.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.