Talisker 57o North 57%
Code: L8 300
Btl: 2008/ Tasted: Nov 2009
A hugely saline nose. I can feel the salt crystallising on my nasal passageways! Big, robust and vanilla’d with some sherry and youthful marc-like notes. Light smoke drifts in as does some delightfully sweet herbal-peat along with the late trademark pepper note.
It is moderately oily on the palate. Opening with a big, robust vanilla impact. However there is an excellent interplay between the vanillins, alcohol, light peat, smoke and spice flavours. Finally the coastal spray asserts itself and finishes with that classic peppery bite. Oooh my tongue is tingling with the freshness!
A drop of water brings out a lovely, aromatic orange note along with some honey and light beeswax. On the palate it emphasises the pepper and it has become a bit candied-sweet. The pepper really bites on the middle and the light peat and smoke full in on the finish. Talisker is one of those malts which really reflects its environment perfectly.
Talisker 57o North 57%
Code: L1 350
Btl: 2011/ Tasted: Feb 2012
A juicy, coastal imbued nose of barley along with hints of boiled sweets and sugared almonds. Some fairly prominent peat pushes through as does some peppery notes. A lovely depth.
The palate is succulent, honeyed, muscavado sugar coated citrus fruit and vanilla fills the mouth. The alcohol powers through with a distinctly herbal edge, and finally some mocha laced gentle peat smoke drifts in. Very long with more than a soupcon of peppery spice! Superb stuff. A serious wake up dram!
Talisker Dark Storm 45.8% (1ltr Travel Retail)
Charred oak casks/ Code: L3 294
Btl: 2013/ Tasted: Sept 2013
The nose is a little spirity with quite an alcohol prickle. It’s not the cleanest spirit I’ve ever encountered with burnt caramel, burnt toast, a touch of treacle and manurey-peat.
The palate is soft and a touch watery with burnt caramel, light peat and treacle. It’s quite hollow with a strange finish that just lingers in the side of mouth with a green woody spice character and a briny after-taste.
The marketing blurb says that it has been “Matured in deep charred oak casks for extra spice and smoke” and that “It is an incredible new flavour-offering from one of the world’s best known and most loved Scotch Whiskies” and “It is a whisky that is true to the Talisker house style but takes its trademark intensity to a whole new level – it is like a whole new ocean of flavour.”
Personally it tasted like this is less than perfect spirit that has been whacked into these heavily charred casks in order to rejuvenate it. A whole new ocean of flavour huh? Hmm that’s stretching the point a bit. I mean if it had been any good it wouldn’t have been released in large bottles as a travel retail special would it!
Talisker Dark Storm 45.8% (1ltr Travel Retail)
Code: L5 320
Btl: 2015/ Tasted: March 2016
Obvious aromas of charred wood and sweet Oloroso sherry. Quite peppery and spicy with hints of treacle, salt, orange conserve, violets and slightly medicinal peat.
The palate is full and treacly, which is a little blanketing but hints of sherry spice, orange, pepper, dry peat and subtle medicinal notes do come through. It freshens on the middle as the coastal character emerges and the finish is lovely and salt encrusted with a lingering medicinal, coal tar character. Considerably better than the first time I tasted it.
Talisker Neist Point 45.8%
Travel Retail/ Code: L5 254
Btl: 2015/ Tasted: Feb 2016
The nose is wonderfully deep and showing some maturity. Juicy orange mingles with barley, hints of dusty peat and some lovely bracing coastal saltiness. Balanced sherry richness and late hint of medicinal peat and herbal chocolate.
Full and showing more tannic sherry on the palate, but that’s balanced by the sharp citrus notes. Hints of barley, dusty peat, sweet barley, walnut and supple dried orange follow. Lovely bracingly coastal middle. Long and remaining deftly juicy. Lingering crystallised orange, subtle peat and salt. In conclusion: Now I wonder where this comes from! Beautifully balanced with a vibrancy that is often lacking in one of its most popular bottlings! [tasted blind]
Talisker Port Ruighe 45.8%
Port Finished/ Code: L3 090
Btl: 2013/ Tasted: Aug 2013
A big, sweet nose of floral redcurrant and strawberry with a light herbal, camphor and smoky-peat note. With time it becomes quite briny as the port notes settle down and dominate the nose less.
The palate is lightly jammy with redcurrant and strawberry. Quite malty with a pleasant degree of youthful peat along with hints of iodine and bog myrtle. The saltiness builds on the middle but the port wood finish flattens it somewhat. The finish is quite strange as the plumy/ jammy port clashes with the peat. All I can say is that it’s a bit mad! Very dry, salty and lightly bitter finish.
Talisker Skye 45.8%
Sherry
Tasted: Mar 2015
The nose is dry, dusty, herbal and lightly tarry peat. Full and rich with what appears to be a subtle boiled sweet sherry note which develops into an almost Pedro Ximinez-like dried grape and prune note. Well balanced by some crisp citrus.
Soft and earthy with a touch of herbal peat and soot on the palate. Like the nose some sherried dried fruit is noticable, but it sits in the background. Quite robust and full with a light salinity and developing hints of orange and burnt wood. Very long with camphor and light eucalyptus notes mingling with the dry peat and tannins. In conclusion: Seriously impressive. The combination of oils and soot stick to the palate long after a sip has been taken.
Talisker Storm 45.8%
Tasted: Apr 2013
A softly intense, smoky and peppery nose. This is how Talisker should be! Vibrant juicy sherry with plenty of herbal and smoke notes. It’s wild…….. But at the same time quite civilized too! Lightly fishy with a spicy, perfumed orange note.
The palate is soft and succulent, opening with the young spirit showing some oily youthful cereal, followed by some gentle coastal/astringent-peat and fishy notes. The sherry kicks in on the middle adding herbal notes as does the intensity as the more mature spirit arrives. Lovely length with a touch of dark chocolate, crystalised violets and a lovely windswept coastal peat smoke as well as a lingering, lightly honeyed, spicy richness. Yes the palate has some rough edges but that only adds to the charm. If only the 10 year old was this good!
Talisker Storm 45.8%
New Packaging
Code: L1298CM013/ Tasted: Feb 2023
Aromas of raw cereal, saline and subtle burnt toffee. There’s some off-sweet barley and hints spicy orange. But the unrefined, inelegant, youthful spirit notes dominate.
The palate is a little subdued to begin with youthful cereal and hints of salt, toffee and seaweed. Very subtly peated with a touch of citrus. Raw, intense green peppercorn, salt, caramel and peat finish. In conclusion: Although the intensity picks up as it’s going along, it doesn’t have the quality of earlier releases.
Talisker 10 year old 45.8%
Tasted: May 2005
Clean, a bit muted/ delicate coastal nose, followed by lashings of creamy oak, slight orange fruit and a hint of wood smoked kippers and sherried fruit.
Dry med bodied, slightly floral, quite saline with bourbon oak and honey. Tangy alcohol, quite viscous, subtle sherry. long length with oak evident and a touch of smoked kippers in the finish.
Talisker 10 year old 45.8%
Code: L11 95
Btl: 2011/ Tasted: Sept 2011
A soft and briny nose with some dense, slightly confected sherry notes, orange peel and black pepper. It does become rather sweet, verging on being overly sweet but a touch of peat and smoke tries to emerge and balance the sugariness. I don’t remember it being quite this sweet though.
Like the nose the palate is soft and sweet, quite rich with caramel laced sherried fruit. The middle is pleasantly piquant with plenty of pepper along with hints of camphor and menthol. Good length with some lovely sweet barley, gentle peat and brine in the finish. For me the palate has a better balance than the nose.
Talisker 10 year old 45.8%
Re-Tasted: Feb 2017
Pungent, sherried, peaty and salty with hints of burnt wood and a lovely combination of dry and manure peat. There is a balancing barley sweetness beneath and with time the salt and smoked kipper notes emerge.
The palate is awash with sherry wood, burnt wood, iodine, tar and earthy peat. The barley is quite pronounced and there’s a touch of honey, salt and tarred rope on the middle. The sherry notes are relatively subtle though. Long and tarry with lingering dry peat.
Talisker 10 year old 45.8%
Code: L6 151
Btl: 2016/ Tasted: Apr 2017
After finding out that I gave it a 9.2 when I tasted it for the World Whisky Awards, I had to check and make sure that it wasn’t a fluke! The last time I tasted it was 6 years ago and it was ok, if a little confected, but now it’s a completely different animal.
The nose opens with the subtly rich and treacly sherry with hints of dusty peat, orchard fruit, prune, salt and orange. The sherry is quite dominant, but there’s plenty of character on display with a touch of tobacco, earth, liquorice, anise and peat smoke.
The palate is full, rich, and like the nose, quite heavy on the sherry with a slight bittering from the wood. However the gentle peat smoke and astringent coastal notes balance the rich, pruney dried fruit and treacle. Very salty finish with a noticeable but pleasant astringency and hints of burnt wood, pepper, orange conserve and peat smoke on the finish.
Talisker 10 year old (New Label 2021) 45.8%
Code: L1351CM003
Btl: 2021/ Tasted: Aug 2022
The nose show a lot less sherry influence than earlier bottlings, which I’m not complaining about! Thus, there is more coastal freshness and sweet barley. It also feels heavier on the peat. Oily dark chocolate, dried fruit, spice and salt. A little raw at the edges possibly but it adds to the character!
The palate opens with the subtle sherried dried fruit and salt. Hints of barley and peat. Like the nose less overt sherry and a touch more building peat and coastal astringency. Long, barley’d, juicy and slightly toffee’d finish with lingering sweet peat, milk chocolate and seaweed.
Talisker 2001 (11 year old) Distillers Edition 45.8%
Amoroso Sherry/ Tasted: Jan 2013
The nose is quite broad and surprisingly not hugely alcoholic! Robust sherry mingles with building maurey-peat. Lightly coastal with hints of orange. A bit one-dimensional but very deep though. With water it becomes pleasantly juicy with an oily sheen to the orange notes and a touch of mocha.
Assam tea leaves and gentle sherry notes to begin with on the palate, followed by peat dust and alcohol. Quite earthy with hints of pepper and tannins. Diluted it becomes watery and a touch vague with a slight cardboard note. The finish is very intense and mouth-watering. The peat gently fades with a lovely, juicy dried fruit finish. Diluted it is short and a bit unsubstantial. In conclusion: A deep, if rather one-dimensional nose. Neat it’s all back-end loaded. With water the nose improves but the palate takes a step backwards
Talisker 1989 (13 year old) Distillers Edition 45.8%
Dist: 1989 Btl: 2002/ Tasted: Feb 2006
Very heavy Oloroso sherry aromas with some orange fruit along with a touch of peat and smoke.
The palate is pretty much the same, swamped in Oloroso. The spirit does exert it’s self with a peppery and dry peat middle. Very long with hints of vanilla, toffee and coal dust in the finish
Talisker 1992 (13 year old) Distillers Edition 45.8%
Dist: 1992 Btl: 2005/ Tasted: Dec 2008
An intense and peaty, peppery nose. Quiet woody with oodles of bog myrtle and coastal peat and wonderfully sweet orange and herbal honey. The aromas broaden given time and the sweetness increases.
The palate opens with a very sweet entry, again quiet woody with liquid honey, flecked with dry, sooty peat. Coastal notes flood the mid palate and the peat and barley cut the sweetness off. Very long with a heathery/ herbal finish. The sweetness creeps back eventually. My only gripe with this is that it doesn’t seem to flow; the flavours are delivered in an almost staccato way and seems rather choppy. Does that make sense?
Talisker 18 year old 45.8%
Tasted: Jun 2005
Clean, deep aromas of rich orange and tangerine sherry fruit, gentle smoke and a coastal freshness with vanilla oak and spices attempting to break through – a vast improvement on the 10.
Dry, full bodied, soft, deep and rich with sweet malt, dried, oily fruit, sherry, coal smoke and a gentle build up of floral peat which fades into a spicy fruity, saline finish with a suggestion of vanilla oak on the after taste.
Talisker 25 year old 57.8%
Btl: 2004/ Tasted: Jun 2005
A far more restrained and mature nose than the 18 year old. Quite shy with a subtle smokiness and hints of honey, vanilla, dried fruit and costal notes.
Full bodied and mature, the palate certainly isn’t shy. Oodles of mature exotic fruit, smoke, vanilla and subtle dried fruit. A little woody but definitely an old fashioned whisky. Long with deftly oily dark chocolate and almost gingery spices and salt in the finish. Damn, that’s good!
Whisky According to Chris Whiskyman 