Talisker 1954/1966 (70 proof, Berry Brothers & Rudd)
This series sheltered some stunning drams, although the lower bottling strength could be an issue after many years I've found on occasion with this range. 1954 was also my parents’ vintage and on my father's side our family hails originally from Skye, so a wee toast to my dad with this one. Colour: pale gold. Nose: a gorgeous medley of soft exotic fruit notes, gentle medicines, old liqueurs of many varieties, old metal tools covered in old oils, pure beeswax, hessian bung cloth and delicate dried herbs. Exquisite but with a sense of fragility, and also the impression the peat as subdivided into many more complex, tertiary aromas over the decades. Mouth: true there is some OBE, true it is also on the soft side and true, at cask strength it would probably have been mind-meltingly good. That being said, you are still left with a poetically beautiful old distillate full of crystalised fruits, delicate traces of bone-dry peat smoke, old honey liqueurs and cask-aged mead and also wonderfully subtle waxy and medicinal complexities. Finish: medium, rooty, herbal, honeyed and with sense of dried fruits, camphor and herbal teas sweetened with honey. Comments: a fragile but nevertheless exquisite old Talisker. This with just a few extra degrees of alcohol would probably jump immediately up to 93+ point territory, an observation made endlessly about such old bottlings with old fashioned bottling strengths to go with them. 
SGP: 552 - 90 points. 

Talisker 1959 (70 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, -/+ 1970)
Colour: pale amber. Nose: much richer and more evidently sherry matured. Wonderful notes of prunes in armagnac, old Claquesin tar liqueur, gentian root, dandelion and burdock cordial and sweet liquorice. A generally sweeter, rounder and richer level of peat I would say. Also the impression of one or two notches more power, which is great. Mouth: as on the nose, the peat is more up front and more elevated in strength, but here it is much drier, closer in style the Berry's and more herbal, rooty and earthy. The sherry is also drier, more rugged and saltier. All that being said, you feel the bottling strength-induced softness more on the palate than on the nose with this one. Lots of fir wood resins, camphor, eucalyptus and medicinal balms. Finish: longer, earther, more medicinal, more peaty and saltier. Comments: superb old Talisker once again. Overall a little more power and oomph than the Berry's and perhaps a few notches peatier too. Although, the fruity / honeyed elegance of the 1954 was arguably missing here. Nevertheless... 
SGP: 463 - 91 points.

Old Tobermory Scotch Whisky (OB, John Hopkins & Co. Ltd, -/+ 1920s)
A bottle I found at auction relatively recently and opened for our big party weekend a few weeks ago. It was sealed with a long driven cork which usually indicates a pre-1930s bottling era. It should be noted that Tobermory Distillery was still operational up until the early 1930s and that there are advertisements (from the 19th century admittedly) which state Old Tobermory as a pure malt whisky brand. There was also Old Mull at this time, which we've tasted some amazing old versions of on Whiskyfun in the past, and which was very evidently a blend. So I was always very curious about this brand and whether it might be 100% malt from the old Tobermory Distillery. Colour: amber. Nose: the first thing to say is it is extraordinarily peaty. Not just the intensity of the peat aroma, but also the character of it. It's much darker, more organic, drier, richer and more emphatically herbal than modern peat profiles. You don't have the intense ashiness, medicine or blade-like purity of modern heavily peat makes here, this is much broader, fatter and complex in the way it presents. It's also hugely liqueurish, with nods towards very old Benedictine, yellow Chartreuse and Drambuie profiles. Loads of herbs, natural tar resins, camphor, paraffin, ointments, hessian and mechanical oils. It is honestly an absolutely magnificent and profoundly old school nose. Mouth: incredible peat intensity! Pure, earthy, herbal-rich, tarry old style peat flavour. Hugely textural, fatty and almost greasy in texture. Also mineral oils, toolbox rags, beeswax and metal polish. It also becomes quite heathery too, heather honey and heather ales galore. Then a more umami and salty profile begins to emerge, with impressions of miso, salted liquorice and rugged old dry sherry. Finish: a long, deep and lasting, dry peat smoke flavour, with some magnificent impressions of very old dry sherry, pure tar, camphor and Maggi! Comments: I have no laboratory to prove anything, but to my palate this is malt whisky. What is most striking is the immense character, intensity and richness of the peat profile. A key hallmark of very old-style malt whisky that I am not sure anyone nowadays would quite know how to re-create. What a wonderful drop of history this wee pre-Ledaig Ledaig is. 
SGP: 467 - 94 points.