cascode
Talisker 10 Year
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
February 24, 2018 (edited February 27, 2023)
* Review number 200, a special one for the occasion.
Nose: It is evening on a shingle beach. A full, pungent peat-reek from the bothy fills the air mingled with the smell of diesel from the boatyard. Waves break against a nearby wooden pier where old mooring lines lie flaked, acrid with the aromas of brine and iodine. The wind is angular, fresh and crisp from the sea, needling the face with spray. Soft smoke from the driftwood fire begins to die as dark brooding clouds furrow the evening's brow. From the cottage there is the scent of spices - pepper, cloves and ginger. A storm is brewing.
Palate: A strong, sweet peaty arrival - but it's just the edge of the tempest. Then suddenly the storm breaks and the development finds torrents of smoke and a bittersweet maltiness thundering down. Lightning cracks as citrus, pepper, ginger and brine light up the palate. The rain turns heavy with large, leaden drops - as though it had a thick oily texture.
Finish: A long time later. Tingling squalls of peppery spice trail off into the distance, obscured by gusting clouds of smoke and sweet tea tannins. As the sky finally clears, stars appear and a faint sour and acrid tang around the tongue is all that remains.
“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
as I foretold you, were all spirits and
are melted into air, into thin air." - The Tempest.
Beautiful, elegantly simple complexity. A benchmark whisky.
"Excellent" : 89/100 (4.75 stars)
95.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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Congrats on 200 reviews...and a heck of a dram to mark the occasion!
@GeologyJack Thanks! I take that as high praise - one of my favourite authors, being a yachtie myself :-) and thanks to everyone for your kind remarks.
Wow! Hammond Innes could not have said better! Great review
Congrats on 200th review. Good choice of whiskey. One of my all time favorites. I blew past my 200 review in Dramfest and sadly forgot about the milestone in all the excitement. No matter 300 isn't far away!
@cascode Congratulations on 200 great reviews! Onwards to the next 200 tasting notes ;)
This review was an odyssey marvelously capturing the experience of drinking this nearly perfect single malt. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 cheers 🥃 and congrats on 200 reviews!
This review was an odyssey marvelously capturing the experience of drinking this nearly perfect single malt. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 cheers 🥃
@Scott_E and we have the data to back that up too...our excel scoring sheet has the highest scores for Talisker 10 and Ardbeg Corry.
@PBMichiganWolverine I was thinking the same thing. The tour has uncovered some gems, but the ones I remember most are those core range sub $100 expressions. @cascode, as always, a great review.
Totally agree with @LeeEvolved...one of the things I learned through our little trading team is that the really good ones are the easily available and affordable standard torch bearers of Talisker 10, Ardbeg 10, Springbank 10, and Lag 16. @cascode congrats on 200, nice choice for it too
Great review, but then again I don’t think anyone here expects anything less! Isn’t it something that you can taste 200 single malts and when you want something truly remarkable all you have to do is reach for a $65, 10 year old from the Scottish isles? It makes you wonder why do we chase all these crazy bottles when perfection is just sitting on almost every shelf of any liquor store in the world. Cheers and congrats on 200, @cascode. I’m looking forward to reading 200 more.
Congrats on 200! Hard to knock your subject of choice for the occasion, it’s a beauty
You keep writing like that and Diageo is gonna raise prices. :) Happy 200th!