Talisker 8 years old – 2018
8 years
59.4% – Cask Strength
Aged in 1st fill ex-Bourbon casks
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Talisker, The king o’ drinks as Robert L. Stevenson conceived it, was born in 1830 and is, to date, the only distillery on the Isle of Skye. After a rough start, the distillery was bought by Distillers Company LTD. who abandoned the triple distillation to go with the classic double distillation. Today, the distillery is owned by the Diageo empire and is part of the Classic Malt line. It has also been featured in the crossover between Classic Malts and Game of Thrones.
Situated on the shore of Loch Harport and not far from the coast, Talisker has always been characterized as a maritime malt, with its classic signature of salt, pepper and peat being in every bottle.
They release annually a couple of bottles, including the classic 10yo, a Distiller’s Edition (10yo with an extra maturation in Amoroso casks), an 18yo, a 25yo and a couple NAS. This special and limited release (something like 5’000 bottles) is part of the 2018 limited release of Diageo.
I am very glad I could put my hands on this one, as Quebec as a whole only received 60 bottles 👎🏻
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Color : wheat 🌾
Nose : a meal worthy of Talisker. We start with an entrée of grilled sardines followed by the main meal, pork chops with apples on the BBQ, and we finish with caramelized apples for dessert. Of course, it is a charcoal BBQ and there is peat for smoking.
Palate : rich and round, peat more present than on the nose. This time we fall into salted butter caramel and spices (cardamom, peppermint and cinnamon).
Final : long taste and short in the esophagus. The high alcohol content brings great warmth without being unpleasant.
Comments: it’s pure juice Talisker! Exactly as we like, plus the perfect alcohol level 😎
I went to read my friend Salim’s review, aka Whisky Is The Limit, he wrote last fall, and I’m glad we have almost the same thing.
No surprises, but that’s good ! Nothing bad to say about this delicious candy !
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(It’s FINALLY spring here, so here is part of the day I spent around Canada’s Parliament park)
