November 18, 2014

Young Talisker

Why young? Because I haven’t seen any old ones this year (hint, hint.) But in my book, Talisker is one of the few distillates that do not always need a lot of maturation a.k.a. time.

Talisker 10 yo (45.8%, OB, +/-2014)

We do follow Talisker 10 at WF Towers, last time it was a 2012 (WF 90). Real bang for your buck, as they say. Colour: gold. Nose: home. Rubber boots and brine, and your clothes after having spent two hours around a garden bonfire. Also, I’ve always found Talisker 10 to be the briniest malt, and this one won’t prove me wrong. Having said that, I find it rather gentler than earlier batches, rounder, maybe a notch more buttery. Maybe easier as well? Mouth: oh no no no, it’s smoky, lemony, salty, crystalline, coastal of course, with only touches of barley sugar in the background. In fact, it’s becoming pretty sweet. Some kind of salted marzipan, perhaps, also more and more grapefruits. Finish: a bit soft at this point, I’d have preferred a little more ‘hock’ as we say over here. Comments: Dear Santa, I’d be interested in exactly the same brilliant whisky, only at cask strength or 100 proof, without any additional wood/wine treatment. Thank you. So yeah, isn’t Talisker 10 becoming a little softer? SGP:456 - 88 points.

Talisker 'Young & Feisty' (46%, McGibbon's Provenance, Spring 2014)

I believe this is a 9 years old, but I may well be wrong. Maybe it’s even younger, we all know what it means when a whisky’s hiding its age (yup, the opposite of ladies.) Colour: very white wine. Nose: it’s pure malt distillate, it’s not exactly whisky. Don’t look for any wood influence, it’s all crystalline, pure, mezcaly spirit. Brine and olives, smoke and seaweed, kippers and oysters. Punto basta. Mouth: excellent. Age isn’t important when the distillate is characterful (but very few distillates are characterful over there in Scotland, in my humble opinion.) A blend of seawater, lemon juice and liquid smoke. Finish: long, ashy, smoky, salty, a bit acrid, perhaps. Green olives in the background. Comments: the official ten is more complex, and probably more consensual (you may pour it to your wine friends, while you cannot quite pour them this baby Talisker, unless you want them to leave ;-). Maybe more demonstration ‘whisky’, but I love it. SGP:367 - 87 points.

Check the index of all Talisker I've tasted so far

Pete McPeat and Jack Washback