Island Single Malt Whisky
Circa £250 70cl
The fifth dram of the day, and still in The Friends of Classic Malts Lounge was poured by Diageo Ambassador, Colin Dunn. We were finding it difficult to pull ourselves away from the fine selection of whiskies available, and the very comfortable surroundings of the Drum Room.
The Talsiker 30 Year Old is a limited edition, and the oldest expression released to date. A natural cask strength single malt whisky each batch will be slightly different from batch to batch, but always from American Oak and European Oak refill casks, and each release is limited to less than 3,000 individually numbered bottles.
The Distillers Notes are below:
Colour: Gold, with little beading
Description: A mild-mannered, more mature Talisker, still with plenty of personality and unmistakable character. Can Talisker be subtle? This one is. It’s an elegant, scented malt that is simple in structure with all its basic elements easily accessible.
Nose: The softly muted character of age. Mild and unusually fruity (citrus), fading quickly into lush seaweed with charred sticks - as with a spent fire, in which the charcoal and peat embers barely glow. Soon becoming soft and very slightly waxy or creamy, like fudge. Just a drop of water freshens things, bringing up drying wooden fish boxes and a return of the tangy fruit (tart plums). Then it all drifts away into charred old wood.
Palate: Drinks well at full strength and has a pleasant, teeth-coating texture. The smoke is immediate and dry with creamy oak. Almond milk and light, sweet stone fruits emerge, joined by a trace of salt, as with peat moss in the rain or seaweed. Adding a little water brings up a pleasant smooth texture. It’s now quite sweet to start but less so overall, with some salt and a trace of cloves.
Finish: Long and gently warming, with salty seaweed in the lingering maritime aftertaste and just a white pepper tingle on the tongue in place of that chilli pepper ‘catch’.
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| Talsiker 25 and 30 Year Olds |
The Talsiker 30 Year Old is a limited edition, and the oldest expression released to date. A natural cask strength single malt whisky each batch will be slightly different from batch to batch, but always from American Oak and European Oak refill casks, and each release is limited to less than 3,000 individually numbered bottles.
The Distillers Notes are below:
Colour: Gold, with little beading
Description: A mild-mannered, more mature Talisker, still with plenty of personality and unmistakable character. Can Talisker be subtle? This one is. It’s an elegant, scented malt that is simple in structure with all its basic elements easily accessible.
Nose: The softly muted character of age. Mild and unusually fruity (citrus), fading quickly into lush seaweed with charred sticks - as with a spent fire, in which the charcoal and peat embers barely glow. Soon becoming soft and very slightly waxy or creamy, like fudge. Just a drop of water freshens things, bringing up drying wooden fish boxes and a return of the tangy fruit (tart plums). Then it all drifts away into charred old wood.
Palate: Drinks well at full strength and has a pleasant, teeth-coating texture. The smoke is immediate and dry with creamy oak. Almond milk and light, sweet stone fruits emerge, joined by a trace of salt, as with peat moss in the rain or seaweed. Adding a little water brings up a pleasant smooth texture. It’s now quite sweet to start but less so overall, with some salt and a trace of cloves.
Finish: Long and gently warming, with salty seaweed in the lingering maritime aftertaste and just a white pepper tingle on the tongue in place of that chilli pepper ‘catch’.
So what did I think?
Well again, I like to think I could immediately tell it was a Talisker. Reading through my scribbled notes taken that afternoon I wrote that this had the most amazing nose with a salty tang, and a sweetness that was just delicious and a finish with a peaty afterglow. Again it was comfortable to drink at cask strength and well balanced between sweetness and saltines, but at around £250 a bottle I'm afraid that this will be out of my price range for a while yet, but given the opportunity to taste this again, I'm grabbing it!
Well again, I like to think I could immediately tell it was a Talisker. Reading through my scribbled notes taken that afternoon I wrote that this had the most amazing nose with a salty tang, and a sweetness that was just delicious and a finish with a peaty afterglow. Again it was comfortable to drink at cask strength and well balanced between sweetness and saltines, but at around £250 a bottle I'm afraid that this will be out of my price range for a while yet, but given the opportunity to taste this again, I'm grabbing it!
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