Hunter Laing - Talisker 2008 - 9 Year Old - Old Malt Cask

This is the second part out of a five-part series of reviews of a private tasting of Independent Bottlers in my local liquor shop. Our personal line-up: 1. Càrn Mòr - Strictly Limited - Benrinnes 10 Year Old 2009 2. Hunter Laing - Talisker 2008 - 9 Year Old Old Malt Cask 3. Claxton's The Single Cask - Bunnahabhain 2013 - Staoisha - 6 Years Old 4. Caol Ila 5-Year-Old 2009 - Hepburn's Choice (Langside) 5. Ardnamurchan Spirit 2019 AD Since my favourite bottle of the last tasting was also part of the Old Malt Cask series (a Coal Ila 9 years old - for my review: see elsewhere on this site), I definitely wanted to try this Talisker. My son luckily heartedly agreed. This 9-year-old Talisker was distilled in 2008 and aged nine years in a single sherry butt (HL 15652). Only 376 bottles are available. I’ve tasted Talisker before (10 years old, Skye, Storm, Dark Storm) but the maturation in Sherry Butt resulted in a somewhat different Talisker experience. I’d say, it adds some faint sun to the Storm, if that would make sense… Oh well, here are our findings: My son definitely found hints of sea-salt and smoke in the nose, with something else - what I could identify as peppery caramel, wich kindly returned to the palate, with some added fruits (clearly the Sherry influence, but luckily, not too obvious) and some more peat. The finish lasted long enough with mostly fruity notes. We both agreed on this to be a firm step up from de Benrinnes, while that had already been a strong starter. I decided that this might very well be my bottle of choice for this tasting, but I didn’t try the other ones yet… To keep reading, the other reviews should be available here on Distiller/Whizzky very soon. To find out the winner (read: the bottle we purchased), see the last review (Ardnamurchan).