Tastes

Ledaig you salty dog! I don't mean it in a good way. I had a hard time with this dram. The best of it is on the nose. A medium-light peat smoke and ocean spray are dominant and are supported by faint red wine notes and Orange Pekoe tea. There was also something that brought an image to mind of a shed of old farm machinery on my grandparents' farm. I couldn't put my finger on it until the third or fourth tasting - a not unpleasant creosote smell. The palate holds some pear, grape skin, black pepper, lemon with cloves, paracetemol tablets and enough salt to pay a Roman legion. The finish was not one to beckon me back: a dry tannic aftertaste like putting a cold wet teabag on your tongue. And lingering salt like a french kiss from Lot's wife. For me this was a real disappointment as I had high hopes and it is well rated. But to my tastes it's as salty as a swearing pirate and not one I would relish returning to.

After a couple of years on Distiller, I feel obliged to finally share my own personal rating system. A consideration I have noticed others doing in their bios. ⭐️ - Ostentatiously completing the crossword on a crowded commuter train, but with mostly incorrect answers that somehow fit ⭐️⭐️ - A busker playing Wonderwall ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - “...and he said: Pretentious, moi?” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The Pyramids, Newgrange, and ziplock bags ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The boxing scene from City Lights Green Spot is a great whiskey. A nose of green apple, pear, vanilla, porridge and light new wood shavings. A creamy taste of cereal, shortbread and citrus rind with a medium finish of honey and ginger. A great, solid, spirit-lifting, pot still whiskey. One of the best. I’d give it 19 stars. Maybe more.

Call out your order to your snooty waiter in a swish restaurant and you'll more than likely hear him say: "Ahhh, exquisite taste, Sir". If I was a barman and someone asked for a Talisker 18, I'd say the same thing. Only I’d mean it. I’d really mean it. The nose is more muted than I expected. It is beautifully briny, with some gentle, sweet smoke, ice cream (vanilla), and some light wood as the Glencairn empties. The taste is where this dram excels. I think @Reverend357 put it best: "The nose is rather humble, no hint at what's about to happen". Humble though the nose may be, the palate has the full-on charm, poise and purpose of Roger Livesey as Torquil MacNeil, Laird of Kiloran. Oily in the mouth, the flavours are orange, peat smoke, salty sweet, developing into strong black pepper - chillies even - really fiery I thought. The sweetness, long pepper, and tinge of smoke continues into the finish and are joined by some oak and particularly a lovely medicinal taste at the very, very end. I'm not a completist by any means, but with this dram I think Talisker may be my favourite distillery. Whether you're a woman, a man, or a single-celled organism; at some time or another, every living entity on this planet has to try a Talisker.

A shamrock stamped on your passport as you enter a place nicknamed "The Emerald Isle"; a population that joyously celebrates St. Patrick's Day as a national holiday; an island with a beautiful rugged coastline .... in the Caribbean. Montserrat. That's what comes to mind with this rum-finished Irish whiskey. The nose is somewhat faint with cereal, honey, floral, apple/pear notes showing through, with some treacle too. Cereal is repeated on the palate, with some strong sugar sweetness and baking spice on arrival. It develops more to tea and oak at the end, and has a medium-long, dry finish of tea and citrus rind. Altogether a very solid dram, and probably my favourite rum finished whiskey over others that I recall tasting, such as The Balvenie Caribbean Cask and Tullamore D.E.W. XO Caribbean Rum finish. Enough scribbling. Back to my daydream of a pasty white Irishman lounging and sipping by the white sand of a Caribbean beach.

WhiskeyLive Dublin 2018 This sourced spirit is made up of a single grain whiskey, a 10yo single malt and a 15yo Oloroso sherry finished single malt; all of which have been married together in a peated cask. Jim Murray gave it 94.5 points in his 2018 Edition and said of it: "Even people purporting not to like peated whiskey will have a problem finding fault with this. This is a rare treat of an Irish.” This was my 28th (and final) tasting before being ushered to the exit at last year's WhiskeyLive. My notes from the night are equally as glowing: "Actually nice. Hard to know if drunk contributes"

This is listed as un-peated but on the nose I certainly get a light puff of peat that mingles with sea spray, new rubber (like a bicycle inner tube), and a core of some sherried fruits including orange and pineapple. I found the fruits are nudged to the edge during the arrival with tingly pepper and salt to the fore. It develops into tart lemon, blood orange and grapefruit and a sherry dryness at the end. The grapefruit continues to round out in the finish which is also is a little peaty and spicy. The empty glass smells of tobacco and sawdust. In summary, it was a very interesting 5cl miniature and my first Hazelburn. But not in the same league as the Springbank I have tried and not enough for me to consider getting a full bottle. However, I would like to try the Hazelburn 10 at some stage.

WhiskeyLive Dublin 2018 This was the worst whiskey of the night at WhiskeyLive. I am sure at that stage my taste buds were overworked but there was no mistaking the poor taste of this one - I couldn't get past a sour metallic smell and taste. I followed it up with Mars Komagatake Nature of Shinshu Shinamotanpopo which was very decent (3.5) and so much better than this.

WhiskeyLive Dublin 2018 This single malt is a sourced spirit aged in bourbon casks and then finished in Camus cognac barrels. The finishing is done in a warehouse on the island and try as I might I could not detect the maritime waft that the rep tried to convince me was there. I did register apples, pears, and floral notes though. The taste was typical but tasty - vanilla, shortbread, and lightly fruity. Lambay island is a privately owned island 3 miles off the coast of County Dublin, passed down through generations of Barings barons (they of banking fame). It is known as a home for a vast amount of seabirds including a circus of puffins, which feature on the label. But it is also, more peculiarly, home to a mob of wild wallabies introduced in the 50s and added to by a donation of surplus wallabies from Dublin Zoo over 30 years ago.

WhiskeyLive Dublin 2018 IrishAmerican Whiskey are a small operation that currently only have this 10yo single malt and a NAS blend - both sourced (probably Midleton as their website says it was distilled in South West Ireland). They have been selling their whiskey for around four years in Ireland and the east coast of the US, mainly in Boston and New York. The nose and taste were nothing special (typical vanilla and spice is all I can recall) and the finish was on the short side. What drew me to their stand to talk to the son of the owner was that I had heard that they were establishing a distillery on Achill Island on the west coast of Ireland. My old man hails from there and indeed their distillery will be located in the site of the closed Achill Brewery - a recent short-lived enterprise run by some of my distant cousins. They recently had stills shipped over from Speyside and my hope is that as an island distillery facing the vast expanse of Atlantic they will produce, in time, a whiskey with a distinct Irish island character.

WhiskeyLive Dublin 2018 This 2018 release is a fine tasting whiskey. Let me say that. Mindy Kaling is a fine looking woman (and talented). Let me say that. But if the company you keep includes Sandra Bullock (Redbreast 21), Rihanna (Dair Ghaelach) and especially Anne Hathaway (Barry Crockett Legacy) then prepare to be judged in that light.