soonershrink
Talisker Distillers Edition
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
July 30, 2023 (edited August 24, 2023)
2021 bottling. The nose is orange, milk chocolate, honey, pear, pepper. The peat is in there, but it's subdued more than i remember from my last tasting of this, which was from the 2019 edition. The nose is somewhat reminiscent of a Highland Park, more so than what I'd expect from Talisker. The palate shows more peat, but also shows a good bit of lactic funk. Wet cardboard. Ham, orange, light to medium peat. Prickly heat. The funkiness reminds me of the unpleasant experience i had with the Balvenie Toast of American Oak, which makes me think this bottle was somehow spoiled like i think that one was. Not to the same level, but this still is not great.
After some googling, I'm convinced this bottle has experienced what's informally known as cork taint, or TCA spoilage. What convinced me is the recommendation to try soaking the whiskey with a bit of saran wrap, as TCA is said to bind to polyethylene. Sure enough, the whiskey seemed to improve after swirling it with a piece of cling wrap. However, as that's unrealistic to expect to do that with every dram, I'm considering trying to return this bottle to the store. Anyone else had any experience with corked whisky, or ever tried returning a bottle before?
Byron's Liquor Warehouse
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Very interesting. I’m familiar with TCA but not the Saran Wrap fix!
I've returned bottles to Total Wine, and you might check with Byron's if you have a receipt. One of my favorite bottles!
@soonershrink unless if Talisker has degraded significantly in quality (which I’m guessing it has not ), this sounds like TCA
Damn that sucks cork Sir. Sounds like the bottle is well and truly (cork)screwed. I’m in the process of tracking down some taliskers, not what I want to be seeing!
@soonershrink Hmm, worried now - I bought a 2021 release myself not long ago. I've had a corked whisky a couple of times and you absolutely know when you get one - it is not a subtle thing and in my experience nothing can remove it. It's like the stink of a rotting mop in a bucket of stagnant water. Mind you that was a very old bottle and even though it had never been opened before the level was about an inch below the shoulder. When I did open it the cork broke and it was riddled with black veins. Corking has to start somewhere so maybe you have a mildly spoiled specimen? I've returned bottles that I thought had been tampered with but I've never tried to take back an open bottle.
@soonershrink bummer bottle. I’ve only had the 2019 edition and it was really good.