Torabhaig 2017 The Legacy Series - Inaugural Release

The first official release from the Torabhaig distillery, founded on Skye in 2017, sold out in a flash. This despite the fact that, like many other inaugural releases we’ve seen in recent months, it is very young liquid, only just legally able to call itself whisky. But then again, we’ve also seen that this is not necessarily a problem. The only problem Torabhaig might suffer from is the fact that it will not escape the comparison with Talisker. Let’s not fall into that trap and just judge the whisky on its own merits, what do you say?

It cannot hide is young age on the nose. Raw grain, barley sugars, fresh white bread, pebbles on the beach, oyster sap and soft smoke. After a few moments, all of this makes way for surprisingly sweet fruit and lots of it. Think banana, juicy pears and young apples. Some green garden herbs. Far from bad, don’t get me wrong. But time has not stopped.

The body is very light. Now the sweet fruit comes first, joined by some vanilla and icing sugar, before a good drop of brackish water takes over. Mildly spicy on white pepper and a hint of aniseed. Then the smoke kicks in, which becomes quite grand and makes your mouth completely warm. This is quite peaty, in fact.

The finish is medium long on green herbs, salt and a nice bitterness at the death.

Quite a maritime malt. If I had tasted this blind, I’d probably figure it for Islay instead of Skye. Initially around 65 EUR, but like I said: sold out immediately. May I say that I find it saddening that retailers are now offering it for double to even triple that price? Give me a break. So now shops start to flip bottles as well?