Talisker 25 Year

Excellent dram, medium level peat mixed with amazing smoky sea oak flavour.

I’m going outside my one dram / week by having this special 25 yr Talisker tonight. My birthday, so with every passing year it’s a celebration to be alive, with a great family and a relatively decent life. I’ve made it a point to have a top shelf whisky every birthday; as we get older it’s due time to reflect on all the things for which to be thankful. This one comes courtesy of @LeeEvolved. A quarter century Talisker, about as top shelf as you can get. I think this is the 2015 version. The nose is impressive: salted caramels, some brine. Actually...I’m getting mostly all salted caramels, can’t ask for a better nose. Taste takes the salted caramels down a notch, and the brine comes out more. It’s much more elegant and refined version of the 10, and even the 18 for that matter. Truthfully I expected more elegance. My benchmark for the two over 20 yr olds has been the Hibiki 21 and Macallan 25. Both had that silkiness that this lacked. But, I’m nitpicking at this point. Still a damn good dram.

The 45.8% ABV bottling from 2011 My starter for my birthday weekend in DC, which will feature ridiculous pours and bottles. This was at Minibar, where they gave me the rest of the bottle, which halfway filled up the Glencairn. We will call it a generous 3 ounces. Sipping on this during a 2 Michelin starred 20 course tasting menu is unfair, but this dram held its own. Not as complex as the food, but it was actually a very good complement to many dishes that were briny and gamey. The best way to describe this is if they turned the ocean into silk. All of the aggression from the 10 year old that was refined in the 18 year old is now completely subdued in the 25. Because it’s not trying to slap you in the face, you can focus on the layers of complexity. Thick brined fruitiness on the nose. Grapefruits, mandarins, pears, peaches. Lightly floral. On the palate, just layers of gentle ocean flavors and fruits that are perfectly blended into one another. Seaweed, kelp, rope, iodine, and still a little antiseptic medicinal peat, but so well rounded. Buttery, silky, with gentle honey, oak, spices, and that medicinal peat on the finish. My wife, who loves Macallan, and ordered a pour from some Macallan diamond earring cask, denounced Macallan in front of everyone and declared Talisker her favorite after trying this. Great! Time to buy this bottle, and a bottle of the even better 1985 maritime edition. 95 / 100