Talisker 25 Year

Serving as a runner-up to Neist Point, the 25 manifests notes of firewood smoke, slight honey, sweetness, peat moss, brine, and pepper. Get ready for a surprising amount of fire for a 25 year old whisky!

Ordered a sample of this from masters of malt. Did not want to pay 300+$ to find out if I liked this or not. This whiskey really through me for a loop. I love Talikser. Talisker 10 is one of my favorite peated Scotches. It's a nice light peat, infused with that salty brine that really makes it wonderful. I've had Talisker 10 and Storm( many of both in fact) and was sure that 25 should be a similar experience, just taken to the next level. Let's get on to my notes for the truth of the thing: Nose: Glue(paste), Green Banana, Musty, Light Tangerine, Light pepper w/ time, and finally towards the end spicy bbq'd baby back ribs. Taste: sweet melon! kelp salt, rainbow sherbert icecream! Where's the peat?! Mouthfeel is light, on the watery side, but powerful flavor. Finish: Cantelope! Shortish in length. I am really torn with this whiskey. In many respects, it is a good dram! However, I was expecting classic Talisker and this is a completely different beast. So much unexpected fruit. It's like they traded the peat/smoke for fruit. It was a fun tasting experience, but I would not want to pay 300$ for this. I know of far more interesting dram's that can be had for under 100$ a bottle. I understand that this is 25 years old and it is hard to hold on to that kind of stock, but this is simply not worth the price tag. I recommend getting a sample, and trying. Maybe for some out there, this will be worth the price of a full bottle.

The review on One Man's Malt site sums it up very nicely for me I reckon. To paraphrase from my viewpoint: firey pepper, lemon, orange, lemon, grapefruit, woody bitterness. Missing the richness of the 10, which means unlike its younger brother not one you want to swirl round and round your mouth. Feels like it's been in wood a bit to long imparting quite a more intense bitter dryness. Hard to rate this one especially as I've found with Taliskers' you often need a bottle to open up over time to get the most of it which a sample doesn't give you. The rating of the 10 year for me shot up from 1st to 2nd tasting (a week later). I have to rate on what I've got however. It grew on me but I prefer the less than 1/4 of the cost younger brother. 3.25 rating and at nearly $300USD a bottle its not VFM.