Talisker Diageo special releases 8 year old 2009 bottled 2018
Rocket fuel
5 189
WReview by @Wierdo
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall89
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The review sample comes courtesy of @Rianc who kindly donated it to me.
Despite the high strength I'm having this neat.
Nose
A clean nose. White pepper, chardonnay, briny and coastal.
Palate
Not a massive amount of heat in the arrival despite the high strength. Quite salty initially with that Talisker trademark pepper and some cayenne on the development. Then some peat that catches the breath. Also quite sweet with something I can't quite place but is best described as the UK 'fruit salad' sweets (I always go with the sweet references you can tell I have a sweet tooth!).
Finish is long, both sweet and dry with baked apples at the end.
A few drops of water enhances the pepper on the nose and brings out the sweeteness on the palate slightly earlier.
Conclusion
I'm not a huge Talisker fan. I like the 18 but am not particularly a fan of their standard 10. In fact I've often struggled to see what all the fuss is about with Talisker. But I do like this. Its the Talisker equivalent of something like Ardbeg Uigedail managing to combine both raw power with sweetness.
I hope this becomes a regular release I'll be grabbing a bottle if they do another batch.
This batch now goes for £180 a bottle in the UK.
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Glad you liked it @Wierdo. The saltiness surprised me! My bottle's almost gone and I'd happily buy another if this became a permanent feature - not at £180 though! Crazy. 'Oogy' is a good comparison.
I'd probably say that, for the £75 or so this cost, the 18 and 57 North are probably better in terms of value for money. I've also never really found the standard 10 to be amazing - certainly not in the way it grabs some, but this last year or so I've tried quite a bit of their range and have been very impressed.