Talisker - Isle of Skye (only single malt produced there) - {Spicy Smoke} -
Food suggestion: Enjoy Talisker with smoked salmon, kipper fillets, grilled smoked mackerel and oysters on the half shell.
Taste style: Complex. A rich dried fruit sweetness, clouds of smoke, strong barley-malt flavours and a peppery eruption at the back of the throat.
On the shores of Loch Harport, the village of Carbost is home to Skye's only distillery producing a wonderful award-winning Island malt bottled at above average strength.
Talisker's soft, peaty process water is drawn from twenty-one underground springs that rise from Hawk Hill (Cnoc nan Speirag) beside the distillery. These same springs have fed Talisker from the beginning. As its name suggests, the hill is home to birds of prey, usually including Peregrines.
Today, 20,000 gallons an hour of cooling water from the fast running Carbost Burn fill a traditional Talisker feature - five wooden "worm tubs", located outside the still house.
Talisker's two wash stills, carefully recreated after the 1960 fire, are unique. The lye pipes leading off from the main neck are U-shaped, to trap vapours from the first distillation before they reach the outside worm tubs, whilst a small secondary copper pipe carries the vapours so trapped back to the wash stills for a second distillation.
Faithfully following the original design, it is believed that this double distillation ensures that all of Talisker's rich, deep character is captured first time. So there is, indeed, nothing withdrawn or reserved about Talisker - a fact confirmed for visitors whose first experience before they take the distillery tour, is a taste of the malt itself.
Talisker embodies all the spirit of this rocky, storm-lashed island and its strong, steadfast people. Skye's only distillery this may be, but like the men of the island the malt has character enough for ten.
"Famously distinctive Island malt. From the western Scottish island of Skye. I believe that the volcanic rock of Skye contributes to the pungent aroma; peppery flavour; and big finish. Unusual still design may add a further dimension." Michael Jackson, whisky writer and expert.
The Distillery - Any traveller to the far flung island homes of fine malt whiskies eventually comes upon Talisker, home to a malt of rare distinction. Here, lodged far from any neighbour in the small coastal community of Carbost at the head of Loch Harport, is one of the finest yet most remote distilleries of all.
It was in 1825 that Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill came here from the smaller island of Eigg, first to bring sheep to Skye, then to bring Skye's wild spirit to the world.
Leasing Macleod land at Carbost, they built Talisker Distillery in 1830 against the fiery protestations of the abstainer and former parish Minister, the Rev. Roderick Macleod, who declared this "one of the greatest curses that... could befall it or any other place".
Soon, their elixir was commented on more favourably, by no less a writer than Robert Louis Stevenson. These succinct lines appear in a poem which might have been subtitled "A simple guide to malt whisky":
"THE KING O'DRINKS AS I CONCEIVE IT, TALISKER, ISLA OR GLENLIVET" (RL STEVENSON: "THE SCOTSMAN'S RETURN FROM ABROAD": 1880)
Stevenson's words clearly had their own effect. The workforce quickly grew and Talisker became the successful enterprise, which it remains to this day.
But not everything ran smoothly during the distillery's history. In November 1960 a simple lapse of concentration led to the leaving open of a valve on the No. 1 spirit still, which was then still coal-fired.
When the spirit reached boiling point a disastrous overflow occurred onto the flames below and the resulting fire burned down the still-room. The distillery was rebuilt fastidiously around exact copies of the old stills. Today, its seductive malt enjoys more adherents than ever before, many of them introduced to Talisker's charms by its place among the Classic Malts.
Talisker 10 yr. old - A wonderful award-winning Island malt bottled at above average strength with a comforting smooth afterglow.
Strength: 45.8% ABV
Appearance: Brilliant gold.
Nose: Peat-smoke with sea-water saltiness, the liquor of fresh oysters, a citrus sweetness.
Body: Full.
Palate: A rich dried-fruit sweetness with clouds of smoke and strong barley-malt flavours, warming and intense. At the back of the mouth is an explosion of pepper.
Finish: Huge, long,¬Ýpeppery finish with an appetising sweetness.
Talisker 18 yr. old - The first regular bottling of an older Talisker. Time has rounded not tamed its might.
Strength:45.8% ABV
Appearance: Amber.
Nose: Rich and fruity ’Äì Victoria plums, greengages, perhaps dried orange peel ’Äì with some butterscotch or rum toffee and a thread of smoke behind. The smoke soon advances into the foreground and the toffee note is joined by a light mintiness. With water maritime characteristics emerge ’Äì dry boat varnish, edible seaweed. Still sweet; now with notes of iodine and the smokiness of an un-struck match.
Body: Full. Pleasant, smooth.
Palate: Sweet in front, then more assertive, with a whiff of smoke. The development is towards smoke, coal-tar and toffee.
Finish: Medium length. Talisker’Äôs characteristic chilli ’Äòcatch’Äô in the finish is subtly present in the aftertaste.