Review #100. Picked a classic. N: Delicious, delicate, and perfume-y peat smoke that's more tinged with maritime scent than anything from Islay. It actually reminds me of a cross between Islay and Campbelltown traditional profiles, which, come to think of it, sounds like a great idea. Iodine, sea salt, saltine crackers. Seaweed, sour fruits, overripe fruits, peach, pear, green apple. Feels like more earthy peat than smoke, but there's a faraway campfire in it, for certain. Moss on a tree in a rainy forest on a cold Saturday mid-spring - like after the snow has mostly melted, but the air still has bite to it. Fresh fish hanging on a line on a dock. Dried fish. Salted fish. Most other types of fish, but it's still not fishy, thankfully. Apple juice. Cold cuts. Almond cookies. Dash of mint/menthol/anise - hard to pick which. A fresh, soapy coriander. P: Caramel, vanilla, mint, peat, pine needles, cinnamon. Rich, sweet, smoky, and spicy, but very well balanced. Just right on the bitterness, which feels tannic in nature. Good dose of salty too. Milk chocolate and Milk Duds. A super mushy vanilla bread pudding with a caramel drizzle over the top. Honey in white tea. Less fruit than on the nose, but there's some red fruit and orchard fruit in the background. Finish is a great mix of sweet, tannic bitter, salty, and pepper heat. It's cinnamon plus - cinnamon sort of flavor, but heat is a bit more. There's a good bit of chocolate and honey in the finish too. Oaky, tannic bitterness lingers. Salt pervades it all, adding some character and interest. There is not a damn thing wrong with this dram, except that Lagavulin 16 exists. I can hardly choose between the two. I think the Lag 16 is slightly more complicated, perfume-y, and interesting, but it's also 50 to 100% more expensive. The fact alone that I'm willing to pay that difference to get a Lag 16 makes me think it's the slightly better dram. But the Talisker is a far better value and, in reality, I will probably choose this most nights over the Lag because it's just easier to replace. And just about as good. Regardless, this is a question with no wrong answer: Talisker is excellent; Lagavulin is excellent. Can't go wrong either way.