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Talisker Port Ruighe

Average score from 9 reviews and 19 ratings 86

Talisker Port Ruighe

Product details

  • Brand: Talisker
  • Bottler: Distillery Bottling
  • ABV: 45.8%

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Talisker Port Ruighe

Double matured in port casks and it shows - unlike my underwhelming experience with the Ardmore 12. Really enjoyed this one.

Aroma - mild dried fruits from the port cask, mild smoke, mild savoury tones.

taste - lovely complexity here; dried fruits and distinctive balance between savoury and sweetness. Not cloying or too dry on the finish. Lovely.

Lost for words with this one but loved its complexity and overall vibe. Would definitely purchase a bottle of this one in the future. Feel like I've only scraped the bottom of the barrel tonight.

@markjedi1

When the NAS-hype arrived a couple of years ago, Talisker was one of the first to launch one next to their classic 10 year old. Now, that does not neccessarily have to be a bad thing. The Talisker Storm or the 57° North were both quite excellent in my book (I have yet to try the Dark Storm and the Skye). This Port Ruighe (say ‘port-reeh’), from 2013, was finished on port casks.

Those port casks have definitely had their influence on the nose. So much so that – bar some citrus – the classic Talisker traits are hardly recognizable. Not a problem, though. I get mostly dark fruit (prunes, dades and a hint of cranberries) and chocolate. Strawberry yoghurt! The peat wants to shine, but is not given the chance. Although there is a medicinal touch in there somewhere. Band aid in the background. Pinch of salt, leaf of mint. Special, to be sure.

It is quite oily, but also piquant from the get-go. Chili pepper, ginger, lots of sea salt. Yes, it even turns brackish. The red fruit (cranberries in the lead) has its work cut out for it trying to shine through. Orange liqueur with some smoke. But now it can no longer hide its identity – this is Talisker alright!

The long finish becomes very smoky, dark and sweet with some earthy notes at the death. Outstanding.

Quasi incognito on the nose, but on the palate, this is clearly Talisker, but with a red twist. I quite like it (certainly the finish), but still love the ‘regular’ Talisker more. Thanks, Pat!

@markjedi1 It sounds also like an IB of Clynelish, am I wrong? Anyway, it is another good review and I think I would like it more than you do.

@dramsam

nose, sweet with honey, port and vanilla. pallate. smooth and silky and port carries through from the nose. finish is quite long

@Rantavahti

Matured in re-fill American and European oak casks and transferred after that into deeply charred barrels and finished in Port wine casks.

This Talisker has some nice roughness combined to sweetness, that brings out the cult movie Slap Shot into my mind. In my opinion, Slap Shot is the greatest sports movie ever made. Like Talisker Port Ruighe, it isn't very well recognized.

It tells a funny, yet violent story of a small town hockey club, that is trying to win games with the fear of violence. That plot gives the movie very entertaining ingredients. Interesting and entertaining ingredients like that are almost similar to the sweet and rough elements of Talisker Port Ruighe.

Nose: Smoke comes in a sophisticated way. Sweet peat and light fruity and salty notes. Red wine with plums.

Taste: Sweet wine and peat make a great combo. Dried fruits stay on the back.

Finish: Quickly fading peat gives space to fresh breeze of ginger. Dry oak and dark chocolate are there as well.

Balance: Great whisky. I'm beginning to think, that peaty Port is the way to go!

Good Port Ruighe review => I've got to get this bottle Bad Port Ruighe review => Phew, dodged a bullet there

The crowd seems to be split between those who find this Talisker expression amazing and those who simply hate it. Maybe I'll just ask it for X-mas, so I don't waste any money on it

That sounds like a good plan. I'm sure it's pretty evident, but to be sure: I recommend this whisky.

@Victor

Talisker Port Ruighe, named after the largest town on the Isle of Skye, combines port-finished malt which had previously been matured in European and American re-fill casks, as well as some charred casks. The reviewed sample is compliments of @jeffc, and is from a new bottle opened one week ago

Nose: rich port nose, combining high, medium, and some low pitches; you can smell some malt underneath the wine, with a bit of apple/pear influence, and a good deal of high-pitched sweetness a la confectioner's sugar. This is a very attractive nose

Taste: good translation of the nose flavours to the palate, though not quite as attractive as is the nose. This moves a little sour mid-palate, but not objectionably so

Finish: goes sour on the finish, but the flavours are generally still quite good

Balance: loses a bit on the finish, but this is a solid Talisker

(water added sweetens, binds, and lessens the complexity of the nose; water added emphasises the sour component of the palate)

@Volks

This is a port matured version of Talisker with a name i couldnt imagine of pronouncing. Interestingly it retails in Australia for the same price as the distillers edition.

  • Nose: relatively restrained, doesn’t give much away, plum jam, red fruits, lemon pepper, chalky and soapy and some meaty aromas too. With water little bit sweeter, red berries and a little more soapy as well

  • Pallet: oily and viscous, toffee and citrus, with kirsch Talisker pepper and chili with a hint of smoked pepper. With water much the same.

  • Finish: plum jam again, coco powder creating dryness and a lovely build-up of smoke. With water more smoke.

  • Mark neat –8.5, with water 8.5

I very much like Talisker, the spirit has a good balance between phenols and sweeter toffee flavours, this is a good representation of the distillery, happy to have it.

@systemdown

Port Ruighe @2013-10-04

Another mini-review. My favourite whisky bar received a shipment of Talisker bottles recently to add to their burgeoning collection (some 200 or more whiskies) - I spied the 57 North and Port Ruighe as the box was being unpacked and made a mental note to try them.

I finally got my chance and tasted both in one session, the Port Ruighe ("Port-ree") preceding the 57 North.

The bottle code on the Port Ruighe starts "L3 093" so was bottled approximately the end of March 2013.

Nose: Loads of sweet, honeyed smoke (smoked ham), oranges (marmalade), a hint of berries, fresh sea air - delicious! That smoke is so sweet and rich. With time in the glass, a toffee note emerges. I could nose this all day. Definitely appeals to me.

Taste: Hallmark Talisker peppery peat and brine attack, smoked citrus, sweet malt, red fruits and more spices with that sweet smoke cutting through it all. A hint of chili. Luscious mouthfeel. Reminds me of the Sheep Dip Old Hebridean 1990 (a vatting of old Ardbeg, [sherried] Dalmore and Fettercairn - do try it, if you can find it). This marriage of rich port and smoke works a treat, as per the sherried smoke in the Old Hebridean.

Finish: Drying smoke, peat, spices and more traces of red fruit (berries). Not overly long, but very pleasant nonetheless.

Balance: Excellent continuity from nose through finish. Fans of this style (sweet and smokey) will take to it immediately, but it may not appeal to all. Very approachable neat (tame, almost), quite possibly at the expense of the distillery character we know and love - the Talisker "fire" is absent in this one. Is this a bad thing?

Score: N23 T22 F21 B22 = 88

I really enjoyed the Port Ruighe, even though it's not your typical Talisker. That nose in particular is an amazing melange of marmalade and honey-glazed ham, a marriage made in heaven. It does not possess the raw impact of the standard 10 year old, losing some of its "Talisker-ness" in the process, but as an addition to their range, I think the Port Ruighe fills a worthy niche.

I will certainly be picking up a bottle for my cabinet, pronto. Prior to this I didn't know that I had an affinity for the smoked sherry/port style but I will be going out of my way to explore more like it. Your results may vary!

Thanks @WhiskyBee! I was well overdue for a review. I wouldn't say this was a particularly detailed one though - just a quick "mini review" to keep the wheels turning. I'll be doing more of these instead of the exhaustive time courses I have done in the past (also, because I'm coming into a lot more samples these days vs. buying full bottles).

Yes the Talisker 10 has changed a fair bit.. my first bottle was from 2005 and it's very different to the present day releases. I've not tried any of the DEs but they are on my list to try.

I'd be curious to know what you make of this, as a Talisker fan. I think the key is to have an "open mind" and enjoy it on its merits vs. on any preconceived notions of what it should be like!

That nose though.. unforgettable!

@systemdown - Great detailed review. I'd barely heard of this one, but you've certainly piqued my interest. I've tried only the 10 yo (several bottles drained, each one so different!) and I'm on the second bottle of the '99 DE, but that's enough to know that I greatly enjoy Talisker. Even if the Port Ruighe may lack some "Talisker-ness," the other flavors you describe make it sound tempting.

@MaltActivist

One has come to expect, and quite fairly, good things from Talisker. The standard 10, the lovely 18 and the delicious 57 North are the reasons for that. So, as a fan, it's disappointing to try hard and eke out positives from their last two No Age Statements; Storm & Port Ruighe. This is what I think about the latter.

At first there is the reassuring and familiar sea salty dampness that one expects from all malts from Skye. There is then a healthy ladle of meat stew with thick chunks of sausage sprinkled liberally with fiery black peppercorns. Cold cuts on the side are accompanied by a bowlful of pomegranate and raisins. I quite like it which makes the delivery that much more disappointing.

You are greeted with an unbalanced palate of caramel, molasses, spicy clove mixed with cherry syrup and a stick of licorice. It has all the ingredients to make this a cracker but I think the spirit weighs far too heavy on the spicier notes not allowing the gentler sweeter profiles to come through. Plus there is a nagging bitterness in there some which is hard to catch.

The lingering, spicy finish also retains the little bit of bitterness.

I really wanted this to blow me away. Instead it chose to remain borderline average.

Great review. It's really refreshing to hear an honest up-front opinion.

@galg

Unless you have been living in outer space or totally without internet access in the last week or so, you must have heard about the new release from Talisker : the Port finished ‘Port Ruighe’. Basically it’s a NAS whisky finished for a certain time in barrels which previously held port wine, which are also known as “port pipes”. I recently tasted the other NAS released only recently by Talisker , the “Storm” and quite liked it, yet this one from what I’ve read is quite different, and it’s always interesting to see what effect this port finish has on the spirit, and if this Talisker preserves enough of it’s original DNA to please fans of the Talisker distillery. Price wise this release should be more expensive than the 10 year old by about 25%, yet current price as advertised by the whisky shop is £59.99 which is rather expensive and a significant price jump from the 10 and also the Storm. Is it worth buying at this price? Let’s try and see what’s it all about.

Nose: Rather interesting with a bit of peat laid upon a layer of sweet orange marmalade, cinnamon bubble-gum , some wood and firecrackers (or spent matches) , not many aromas of younger spirit in spite of it being NAS and probably not very old at all… a sprinkle of pepper, but not as pronounced as in the 10 year old. a bit of spiced apple too. interesting, and different.

Palate: Big stuff over here. sharp peppery, spicy and sweet entry, as in sweet chilly, and hot cinnamon, getting sweet and spicy at the same time, with the peat always in the background supporting and giving it a special character. water brings out additional sweet and fruity flavours and makes the chilly less noticeable.

Finish : chewed cinnamon gum, quite a bit of sweet smoke,and more wood, and damp earth. very long

Conclusion:

This is a very nice whisky, very different, yet pleasing to the palate. a nice addition to the range and quite far from the 10, Storm and the rest. Die hard Talisker fans might not like this one as much, but If you think of it as an addition to the line od expressions, which should be quite different and not a twist on the current 10 or Storm, then it certainly has its place. The issue of pricing is indeed a bit of a downer since 60 quid is quite a lot of money, and a big price jump from the excellent and much cheaper 10 yo. I sure hope this price is only a matter of time and as more shops stock this one it shall be much lower than what the whisky shop is now asking for it, being the first and only online shop to sell it right now.

First of all: really good review, thx for sharing @galg! I have to say I tend to like whisky which is 'different' so this one gets my attention too. I would also love to try the Storm though... Where are you getting all these samples? Love it!

As for the pricing: Some German shops sell it for a reasonable price imo, see whiskybase.com/whiskies.php/…

TWE unfortunately seems to be out of stock but I guess this one will be in the price range of the Storm.

Thanks wills. It's available from other retailers : master of malt. Loch fyne etc. and is around 42£

Got samples from Diageo.

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