Review #14: Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 10 yr old. 45.8% ABV

Talisker is the only distillery on the Isle of Skye located in the village of Talisker which interestingly for those of us are fans of the Highlander Films and TV series was formerly owned Clan McCleod!

This particular bottle had been in the office for a while, one of the boys brought it in shortly after joining us fully embracing Friday dram tradition that we have going on. It has been open for about a year so in all probability it has lost some of it's potency and peatiness, however I have drank this before and on occasion over the last year from this bottle and have also tried it again recently from a fresher bottle. This is a dram that I do quite enjoy however my wife hates me drinking smokey whisky so for diplomatic reasons I tend to go easy on them and maybe buy 1 in 10 bottles or just partake on a boys night out. 

Peated whiskeys aren't everyone's cup of tea however having grown up with turf as a fuel and having spent a bit of time on bogs, even having worked for Bord na Mona in Ireland which actually translates from the Gaelic to Board of Bogs/Peat! I have many fond memories of the smell of burning peat/ turf. I often find when drinking peated whiskies that my mind drifts back to past life experiences, like sitting in front of the fire as a kid or the fire in my best friends house when i was 13 and how his dad was an interesting character to say the least - odd stuff, walking home from town in the rain on a cold autumn night and occasionally getting the pleasant distinct waft of a turf fire.

Price: quite reasonable - 60$ on sale in the local shops, I picked it up for 50$ in duty free once: 6/6

Appearance: looks a little orange might have the caramel added??? label tells me nothing. Nice legs in the glass: 5/6

Availability: widely available, duty free, supermarkets this whiskey is fairly common might even make an appearance in non whiskey specialist pubs: 6/6

Marketing: Talisker is part of Diageos' "classic malts" series and there's a bit of flavor profiling on their "Malts" website and also the opportunity to sign up for a free distillery tour pass to about ten of their distilleries which is really cool. on the Talisker page there's a virtual distillery tour via google maps which is pretty good - check out the link below. there's a nice historic timeline with some lovely photos of the distillery and surrounds. Interestingly Talisker used to triple distill! I wonder what that would taste like? I cant fault the marketing really, it's nicely done: 6/6

https://www.malts.com/en-gb/distilleries/talisker/  

Packaging And Label: Clear glass, nicely shaped bottle, pretty label that tells me the latitude and longitude of the isle of Skye but not too much about the whiskey, says it's made by the sea, could be up for a class action lawsuit there! I'm pretty sure this whiskey was made by a bunch of blokes in the distillery on Skye using stills and such!! This comes in at just under 46% could be non chill filtered but doesn't say it:  4/6

Nose: peated smokey, not as strong as a laphroaig, as I mentioned above this whiskey takes me places, theres also a lovely sweetness there too and zesty lemon citrus: 17/20

Taste: smokey heavier sort of smoke still peaty but not light peat, closer to coal and oil - not in a bad way, the sweetness and citrus are there too: 17/20

Mouthfeel: ok, nothing amazing but not bad either, maybe a little thin: 7/10

Finish: There's a big hit of pepper spice which comes and goes fairly quickly and there's something medicinal in there too, some sweetness and citrus in the finish too: 16/20

This is a really good interesting whiskey which I will definitely be coming back to as I've been drinking lots of peated whiskey as of late and I want to have another dram of this to see howe it compares with several Islay whiskies, a peated Arran and a Highland Park from Orkney that I've enjoyed lately.

Total score: 84/100