Origin: Isle of Skye (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 45.8%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: Yes
Owner: Diageo
Average price: € 130.00
Official website: taliskerwhisky.com
Vote: 92/100
After the 25-year-old, we continue to discover Talisker’s vintages by trying their 18-year-old: following the thoughts in our last review, 18 years is an important milestone for many, involving the (theoretical) assumption of many responsibilities.
Will Skye have taken them on in creating this whisky? Judging by the World’s Best Whisky award won in 2007, it would seem so.
A curiosity before approaching the glass…
I opened and poured the sample into my Glencairn and left the room for a moment: on returning, the aroma of the whisky had already perfumed the air.
Not a bad spoiler…
Tasting notes
The colour, inexplicably artificial, is deep gold with amber highlights.
The aroma is intoxicating, delicate and enveloping: mineral peat soaked in the ocean, enveloped in a soft blanket of marzipan, candied orange and even dark chocolate. A flurry of pepper and a splash of lemon complete a truly rich nose, where the smoke is a gentle background and the sweet/salty balance caresses the nostrils. It would make an excellent room scent, just a little expensive.
Peat and wood glide over the palate at the first sip, with oily elegance: again, the scents are anything but aggressive, enveloping and sinuously revealing themselves. The contrast here plays on bitter-sweetness, with touches of liquorice accompanied by caramel, candied orange and salted butter; chocolate returns, evoking Modica chocolate with salt crystals crunching under the teeth. Pepper, generously sprinkled over everything. Meanwhile, puffs of smoke from Habana. Elegant and rich, layered, sensual.
The finish accompanies you for a long time, embers extinguished on the shore, salt and pepper crystals.
Soft and elegant, it fully embodies the soul of the distillery, while at the same time making it wear a formal dress: some might turn up their nose at it, preferring perhaps a rougher profile, but personally I really appreciated its different personality.
Other perspectives:
The Scotch Noob