Origin: Isle of Skye (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 45.8%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: Yes
Added coloring: Yes
Owner: Diageo
Average price: € 34.00
Official website: taliskerwhisky.com
Vote: 87/100
On an island again, but this time the delightful Isle of Skye, easily reached by a bridge linking it to Scotland.
Although larger in area than Islay, there has long been only one distillery on this island, Talisker, and it was only in 2017 that another arrived to keep it company, Torabhaig. Since, as yet, bottles of the latter have obviously not been released, Talisker may still hold the record of the only whisky from the area.
To think that at one time there were seven distilleries (more or less legal)…
The 10-year is the distillery’s basic version, the best known, whose production has been drastically reduced: due to the growing demand for spirits, ageing is becoming increasingly shorter, and as a core range a NAS, Skye, has been preferred, with faster production and therefore more remunerative. Diageo, the colossus that owns this and other distilleries, is focusing above all on its best-known blended, Johnnie Walker, and a good part of the whisky production of their brands ends up in its various expressions: like it or not, this is the price of the new market boom of recent years.
Tasting notes
The aroma is immediately coastal, strongly marine, combined with pepper, cinnamon and orange. A hint of smoke unites everything, together with a slight alcoholic tingle.
In the mouth, the smoke becomes more present, but still ethereal, elegant, almost more an impression of burnt peat, which is accompanied by hints of tobacco and again cinnamon and spices (pepper, even more than on the nose). And the ocean becomes more present, with a full and satisfying sweet and salty wave. We are definitely not on Islay, looking for burnt peat here would disappoint, but what there is, is harmonious, structured, solid. For a basic bottling the complexity is truly remarkable.
The marked spicy profile accompanies you for a short time after drinking, together with the marine smokiness, more accentuated than on the palate.
An excellent bottle with a distinctly oceanic profile, elegant and proud, it’s a shame production has been curtailed, but stocks are plentiful and it will be easy to find for a very long time.
Other perspectives:
The Scotch Noob