Talisker Skye

First Talisker and gone for the NAS Skye to open, I wanted to try something with a little more peat/smoke hence the baby step over to Islands before Islay.

On fresh opening there is a lovely sweet aroma with very light smoke and bit of salt air, not bad but was expecting a bit more.

The first sip changes the playing field the arrival is first sweet then a wave of peppery heat coats the tongue as the heat fades it is replaced by a stronger smoke than was suggested on the nose, underlying the smokiness is the flavours of a good deli bar, salted and smoked meat on the finish with the smoke staying for a while at the end.

I like the overall profile and will be trying the 10 soon, I bought this on offer then 2 days later saw the 10 for same price so got that as well. The only downside I could see is E150 added, I don't care what it looks like as long as it tastes good.

Amazingly, I got this 1L bottle of the new Talisker expression for absolutely nothing. See, a friend of my girlfriend's was travelling in Europe, and I guess he owed her a favour - she asked him to find this bottle for me, and when he did, he gave it to her for free. Which she then gave to me (don't worry, I saved them both huge samples). I am a lucky, lucky man!

Talisker is the latest malt distillery to turn out a NAS expression. I know we all hate them, but unfortunately this is the way of the future. After telling us for decades that age matters when it comes to whisky (which is not necessarily true), now they are telling us that age doesn't matter at all (which is also not necessarily true). It seems the Scotch whisky industry has about as much integrity as a US Republican candidate (or a certain ex-mayor of Toronto). Anyway, this Talisker contains whisky that is matured in toasted and refill American oak casks; otherwise I don't know much else about it. Strangely, it's not mentioned at all on Diageo's www.malts.com website.

The colour is a medium gold, with orange highlights. Malty on the nose, with light caramel, soft vanilla, black pepper, strawberries and Juicy Fruit (!) Slightly sooty, with gentle peat. Ginger. Maltier - and more herbal - with water. I would call this "Talisker Lite", which is really an observation, not a complaint.

On the palate we have toffee, freshly cracked black pepper, some chili heat and some serious peat (no longer "Talisker Lite"!) Grassy and malty. Nicely sherried. Berries, milk chocolate, rum-raisin. Mint. Everything gets punched up a notch with water. Excellent - retains that Talisker character while adding some elegance.

The finish features a lot of caramel (a bit too much) with mossy peat, tobacco ash and leather. Now, we all moan and cry about the growing number of NAS scotches from our favourite distilleries, but somehow Talisker has managed to get it right, when so many others (I'm looking at you, Macallan) have gotten it wrong (maybe it's because they retain that unique Talisker ABV of 45.8%) While I would never say this is better than the 10 Year Old, at the right price point I would buy this quite frequently, and not feel like I was brainwashed by some Diageo marketing genius. Hopefully it makes it to the LCBO very soon.

Talisker distillery is the only distillery on the Isle of Skye and was founded in 1830 by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill, sons of the local doctor. It was rebuilt between 1880 and 1887, and was extended in 1900. In 1925 the distillery was acquired by the Distillers Company Ltd and today is part of Diageo. In 1972 the stills were converted to steam heating and the maltings floor was demolished. Talisker distillery is famous for its stills’ swan neck lye pipes: A loop in the pipes takes the vapour from the stills to the worm tubs, so that some of the alcohol condenses before it even reaches the cooler; it then runs back into the stills and is distilled again. Skye was released in early 2015 as (another) no age statement expression in the current Talisker range. It has been matured in refill and toasted American oak casks.

The nose starts with medicinal, briny and somewhat ashy notes. These are followed by orange peel, apricots, and marzipan. In contrast to what we are used to with Talisker, this is a fairly soft and well-rounded nose.

The palate is medium-bodied quite spicy and peppery. The smoke is now more prominent, together with sweet flavours of peach and raspberries.

The finish is pleasantly warming, dry and smoky. Towards the end the smoke turns into very ashy flavours.

This is a fruity and fairly well balanced Talisker, and I admit that it might be more approachable than the standard 10-year old, but apart from having created an entry level smoky whisky I am not sure what Diageo wanted to achieve with this. This feels a bit like a low level version of the 10-year old that remains the benchmark that none of the recent NAS releases (Storm, Dark Storm, Port Ruighe, and now Skye) can measure up to. So – in other words – Talisker Skye is good to be tasted once, but probably just once.