ScotchingHard
Talisker 18 Year
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
August 1, 2020 (edited July 17, 2022)
Bottled in 2012.
This was my second bottle of Talisker 18, and I had a problem with it. My first bottle of Talisker 18 was one of my favorite standard releases. It was just a solid, well-rounded, pleasing whisky, as good as a standard release comes. On opening this bottle, I thought it was equally enjoyable as Talisker 10, which was less than half the price. This did not get better, and when I got down to the last 100 mL or so, it just turned soapy, fractured, and demented. This was my first whisky that actually turned bad after opening, and it had been open for maybe a year and a half. I don’t know what happened.
One thing I’ve always noticed about Talisker is that it always tastes best fresh. Talisker 10 starts tasting flatter and flatter the longer it stays open, but I don’t have a problem because it is well priced and so yummy that a bottle of Talisker 10 never lasts more than 6 months. Another thing I recently started to notice about Talisker is that the NAS releases are really, really bad. Just salted plastic melt, pollution-by-the-sea kind of garbage notes that I believe I’m starting to pick up in their finer releases by, perhaps, association? It’s like how watching the Die Hard sequels somehow ruins the original.
Talisker 18 noses like a Talisker should. It’s a beautiful aroma balancing sweet, salty, and a pungent medicinal smoke. For me, it is the most recognizable aroma of any distillery. But, for me at the moment, the taste of Talisker is just inconsistent - an often unsettled perturbation of wooden pepperiness and minerality - and I only trust the Talisker 10 to return value for my money today, especially seeing the Talisker 18 exceeding $150 in today’s crazy prices.
Score: 0 (forgettable)
How much does a bottle cost?: $130-200
How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $80
130.0
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@cascode @Rick_M I never experienced one of my bottles “go off” until this one. I have a few mezcals that have been open for over a year, including a treasured Del maguey iberico. I hope they don’t spoil. This talisker 18 was still a nice treat one evening, and then when I went back to it less than a week later, it was awful and stayed awful. It must’ve been a chain reaction kind of thing.
@Soba45 The only thing I can think of that might account for variation is the fact that only about 5,000 barrels are aged in dunnage on Skye - the vast majority of the output is matured on the mainland in rickhouse-type warehouses. I don't know, however, what barrels go into what bottles.
@ScotchingHard Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with this. I must be lucky as Talisker is one distillery that has never let me down. There are a couple of expressions that are ho-hum, but all the age statement bottlings I've had have been excellent, and the 25 I had last year was one of the finest whiskies I've tasted. However it's not a distillery I follow assiduously. Not that I have any issues with it at all but while there are some distilleries that appear on my "open" shelf regularly I seem to only open a Talisker every year or so. Oxidation is for sure a real thing but the effect varies. I've never had a Springbank, Glenfarclas or Mortlach that did not improve with time and air in the bottle, but BenRiach hates oxygen with deep passion, as does Strathisla. Maybe Talisker is also problematic? @Rick_M That issue with mezcal was exceptionally strong. I've never, ever tasted any whisky that went "off" the way those mezcals did, and all in the space of a year.
@Soba45 - Oxidation is an interesting subject and definitely affects spirits in both a good and bad way sometimes. The best example of this that @cascode and I both found was with Mezcal. @cascode had several bottles, but had a bottle of Del Maguey Chichicapa that lost all of its smokiness after 6 to 9 months. It was still very good but lacked the thing I liked most about it. It’s probably the reason they use a rubber stopper to keep an airtight seal. On the other hand, I had a bottle of Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban that I rated at 3 stars initially but improved 4 stars when the port finish became dryer and vermouth-like over time. As @pbmichiganwolverine likes to say, “It’s all subjective in terms of one’s tastes.” I have a bottle of Talisker 10 that I reviewed 3 years ago, and sampling now as I write this. It’s still every bit as good as when first opened. :)
@ContemplativeFox Some younger whiskies get a little flatter over the months, but nothing too bad. I was surprised this bottle just went soapy one day. I had a soapy Talisker Storm at a bar one day, and I thought the bar was not rinsing their glasses properly. Now I wonder if it’s just something that happens to talisker. Most bottles I have get better after opening.
@ScotchingHard @Soba45 @WhiskeyLonghorn Thanks for that insight regarding aging and batch variation. It sadly makes me a bit less trusting of Talisker as a distillery and a tad nervous about the unopened bottle of Talisker 18 I have sitting on my shelf. I've had a similar aging problem with my Highland Park 18 where it went from phenomenal to now sadly sub-par over several months (largely in a 1/3 full bottle). Are there any other bottles you've had trouble with?
@Scott_E Yeah not sure. Maybe they have always had issues or maybe a certain period..someone like @cascode or @Rick_M might know
@Soba45 @PBMichiganWolverine @ScotchingHard Hmmm. When I fast samples the 18, it transported me. I still recollect the feeling. That was years ago. My experiences are not as vast as you all. However, is this the beginnings of a lack of quality casks and this is the new 18 baseline?
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I’ve had a bottle of this open for about ten months, and it’s about the halfway mark. I had a pour last week and it’s still got the Talisker signature pepper and brine, but it also retained those coffee and buttercream notes I got when I first opened it. I have noticed it was a bit more restrained though. I’ll have to keep an eye on that. And I agree on the price. I paid $162, which in hindsight for what I got, was too much.
That’s an interesting point regarding oxidation. I don’t think I ever had a Talisker open for too long ( always shared it when friends are over so it finished quickly ).
I never had a bad bottle of Talisker until the 18 year. It wasn't as bad as your experience but it was harsh and very poorly constructed. I gave it an extremely charitable rating as I was newish to whiskey and not as confident to call it as I saw/experienced it then. I then had a truely terrible 25 and then later a great one and realised there were definitely batch issues. NAS's I haven't had an issue with to date.