OB 18yo 45.8% - Talisker

[Willie JJ]

Talisker 18yo

Nose: Wonderful soft peat layered with malt. Lint and light tar, along with wonderful fresh shellfish. Fabric softener and fruit as well as some tannins. It all sounds so improbable as a working combination, but it is just sensational.
Palate: Salt and citrus. Resins and Sandalwood. Grist and Cocoa. Strong tea and Linseed. I'd forgotten how exceptional this is.
Finish: A relentless interplay of flavours that keeps you interested for, ... well I'll let you know when it has stopped.

Magic.

[Willie JJ]

I found a second note

Colour: Hard to tell under these lights, but deep gold it seems. Strong legs.
Nose: An amazing, delivery of soft fruits over-ripening in a bowl with a slightly smoky fire in the room. A hint of malt extract in an open can near the bowl.
Palate: This dram is amazing! The initial coating of malty honey on the tongue rushes back across your palate with an inhalation of the smoke from the fire. It dances on the tongue telling different stories in different parts of your mouth. Its full bodied, but not hugely oily in texture.
Finish: The finish is fantastic. The whisky just seems to keep bursting into life again unpredictably, first here, then there. Takes ages to fade. Pretty sure it will still be teasing me tomorrow.

Its truly magnificent. I don't know if I'm concentrating harder on it now than I have previously, but this bottle has been open for a few months and its nearly finished now and if anything the whisky is still improving. Fantastic!

[Ganga]

45.8%

9-2-06

Nose: vanilla, hazelnut, heather, cocoa, oranges
Palate: caramel, spice
Finish: long with caramel laced with spice

10-28-07

Nose: iodine, smokey, cereals, light citrus
Palate: smokey, malt, sweetness, spicey, oregano?
Finish: long, smokey with pepper notes

[C57]

Talisker 18yo

Nose : Much softer peat than the younger versions. And this time there's a fruitiness behind it with the malt much easier to detect too. This a much gentler experience than the 10 or 12

Palate : Again a gentler peat but still with a peppery flavour. Nice oaky spices in there after a few seconds. Then the peat comes back and continues into the

Finish : which has loads of peat and some more of the fruity notes. Spicy malt in there too.

This is a superbly well-balanced dram. If Talisker gets even better as it gets older, I wish I had some 20 or 25yo!

[TheTross]

L6 bottling

Nose: Spicy, peppered seafood. Light oak. A little sherry, chocolate and golden syrup. Tabasco sauce. Honey and a very faint touch of mint. Citrus fruit. Something very slightly yeasty in the background.

Palate: Sweet, oily and fairly briny. Lemon. A little woody. Honey and quite sherried. Some pepper kicks in soon after.

Finish: Some peat smoke. Leathery? Pepper, sherry sweetness and lemon.


Rich, thick and very satisfying. A definite notch up from the 10yo, though it isn't as powerful. Marvellous whisky; I could drink this all day!

[Willie JJ]

Tasted again: 08/04/2009
Colour: Deep gold
Nose: Fruity, marzipan, seaweed, pears, soft toffee.
Palate: Huge salt, barley sugars, some of those heavy sulphury compounds you get at the tail end of the distillation.
Finish: All salt, pepper and seaweed. Will it ever stop? Fabulous.
Comment: Relentlessly brilliant.

[roadrunner]

Talisker 18
45.8%

Color: Dark golden.

Nose: Maritime influence immediate: clear sea air with a dose of mellow yet potent peat. Gentle wood, a sweet complexity, something like ripe fall fruits; spices working in the background including cinnamon. Also picked up the smell of stone!

Palate: Peat and spice followed by a satly, maritime note. Developing with complex spices and rich notes of wood and fruit and pepper. Peat and salt are always accompanying whatever flavors are coming though. After a while of sitting on the tongue, the pepper, so characteristic of the 10 yr old Talisker, asserts itself beautifully.

This is a hell of a scotch. Its flavors are assertive without being overpowering, and it managed to be significantly different from the 10 yr old, while maintaining the true spirit (pardon the pun) and character of Talisker. And, given that this was only $20 more than the 10 yr old version, I'd say that anyone buying this bottle is getting their money's worth. Amazing stuff.