Talisker Vertically


October 20, 2026

Talisker, vertically

Shall we say we’ll be wandering between 1978 (Talking Heads, baby) and 2012, does that suit you? With two or three genuine stars from the Isle of Skye…

Talisker 9 yo 2012/2022 (59.1%, Whisky Picnic Bar, refill hogshead, cask #HL18807, 209 bottles)

They had added ‘Just Dram It’ in large letters on the label. May we taste it all the same? We’d already had an excellent 2011 from the same stable. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: precisely chiselled, with smoked oysters, seaweed, iodine and a little salted butter. Wonderfully elemental stuff. With water: salted butter caramel! Incredible… Mouth (neat): a little brutal, with the proverbial pepper, plus salt, lemon and slightly bitter seaweed. Then antiseptic and ashes. With water: much the same, plus a sort of very feisty green peat. Finish: long, intensely salty, practically seawater. Comments: probably a little immature, but then again, that allows us to get very close to the distillate. And what a distillate! The cask was little more than a footnote here.
SGP:466 - 89 points.

Old Skye 14 yo (56.8%, Decadent Drinks, Refill HHD + 1st fill Sherry Butt, 2026)

We don’t know whether Angus and his gang used the name ‘Old Skye’ because they weren’t allowed to call this baby ‘Talisker’, or whether it was a bit of whimsy, or a desire for consistency with the ‘Old Orkney’ range and its successors. But does it matter? Oops, I’ve just noticed that they did indeed put ‘Talisker’ on the label, so I’ve been talking nonsense again. Colour: gold. Nose: old copper pots, saltpetre, slag, then old walnuts and nocino. Much gentler than the 2012, although that could still change. With water: magnificent! It feels as though we’re facing an old manzanilla with a little more wood than usual. We could call it ‘special new criaderas’, if we weren’t afraid of looking ridiculous. Mouth (neat): an excellent peat + sherry combination that works this time, with plenty of leather, tobacco and bay leaf, plus surprising notes of pink grapefruit and tapenade. With water: it tightens up, moving towards very salty mustard, samphire and green walnuts. Finish: long, saltier than seawater. Pipe tobacco afterwards. Comments: I think this was a daring exercise, but they’ve pulled it off perfectly. Quite a tightrope act.
SGP:366 - 91 points.

Talisker 15 yo 2010/2026 (59.7%, Douglas Laing for LMDW ‘Les Anthologistes’, hogshead, cask # 714514)

Colour: pale white wine. Nose: very narrow, almost constricted, yet magnificent, with tincture of iodine, flint and green apple. Pinpoint precision. With water: smoked barley, lots of smoked barley. Bread baked in a wood-fired oven, with ashes even inside it. Mouth (neat): amusing notes of Williams pear remind us that, after all, this Talisker isn’t old. And if it is, the cask remained as silent as the grave. In fact, it’s superb, almost embarrassingly so already. Indeed, really. With water: seawater, apples and pears, green pepper, mercurochrome. Finish: it becomes almost gentle, almost civilised. Barley, ashes, pear. Not all that much pepper. Comments: another wonderful young Talisker. Young in the glass, at any rate, with a proper ‘mezcal’ effect. I know what I mean.
SGP:556 - 91 points.

Talisker 15 yo (57.1%, OB for Thompson Bros., Dornoch Castle Whisky Club Exclusive, refill hogshead, second-fill Port finish, 250 bottles)

Securing an official Talisker to offer is quite a coup, even these days, when allocations are becoming a somewhat… ahem, old-fashioned concept. Granted, the port is a little worrying, but it was refill, and only for four months… Colour: chardonnay. No faded rose, no partridge eye, no onion skin, no ripe apricot. Phew. Nose: yes, well, it’s Talisker with a tiny touch of strawberry purée, much less than in a Strawberry Daiquiri. In short, it works, Skye’s peaty spirit keeps the upper hand. With water: it doesn’t change much. Mouth (neat): even less port, or at least strawberry, and to be completely honest, had I not known this was a port finish, I might not have spotted it. Of course, once you know, you can taste it, that’s how our brains work, which is why so many mammals are better than us. In this respect, I mean. With water: the malt takes the lead, while cherry and Timut pepper partly replace the strawberry. Finish: long, with more green pepper alongside the pink pepper. Salty aftertaste, as expected. Comments: a very fine variation on Talisker, softened a little but far less disconcerting than expected.
SGP:655 - 87 points.

Hang on, since we’re on the subject of 15-year-olds…

Talisker 15 yo 1978/1993 (56.4%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection)

As usual, the label specifies that this baby was matured in an oak cask, which happens to be our favourite running joke. You’ll tell me that technically, although not legally, it could have been chestnut or even acacia, both used for transporting certain wines, but it’s been centuries (right) since I last saw any in Scottish warehouses. But enough nonsense… Colour: bronze mahogany. Nose: this is sherry. And it’s magnificent, with competition-standard walnut cake (Mrs Whiskyfun makes an excellent one, glazed with gewurz marc), then tobacco and sublime notes of mandarin, clementine, bergamot, citron, kumquat, well, you get the idea. Splendid. With water: forget it, this is just too beautiful. The camphory side is sublime, and the tobacco is a very grand cru from the Vuelta Abajo. Mouth (neat): grandiose, salty, with intergalactic sherry, hoisin sauce, competition-standard nusswasser, balms and oils, precious chocolate and equally precious coffee. What’s spectacular is how completely everything has come together, melded and mingled like Jagger and Richards (and Mick Taylor) in Wild Horses. Right. With water: utterly sublime chocolate. Finish: likewise, utterly sublime chocolate. Comments: holy featherless crow, what a Talisker and what a sherry!
SGP:465 - 94 points.

Let’s take the opportunity to stir things up a little …

Talisker 15 yo 1979/1995 (63.6%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection)

Yeah… Colour: pale white wine. Possibly the refill counterpart to the previous heavy sherry. Nose: that feeling of having opened a tin of sardines with lemon and olive oil, or of strolling around a fishing port, Douarnenez, Agadir, Essaouira, Port of Palm Beach, Vigo, Zamboanga (spot the odd one out) … I’ve rarely found so many sardines or anchovies in a whisky. With water: medicinal notes arrive, eucalyptus, lime, smoked porridge… Mouth (neat): incredible, simply incredible, even at 63.6%, or probably a little less after thirty years in bottle. What a maritime, fishy beauty! With water: forget it, this is simply wonderful. Finish: long, almost gentle, but with sumptuous salinity. Comments: a work of art, with something of Brora about it. And I’m convinced those thirty years in bottle have done it a world of good, softening the peat rather than dulling it.
SGP:464 - 94 points.

Well, it would have been vulgar to give these 1978 and 1979 CADs different scores, especially as they came from extremely different casks. Still, things could prove tricky for the last whisky in this session after those two monstrous Taliskers. Or perhaps not, depending on whether any re-racking has taken place. Let’s see…

Talisker 32 yo 1993/2026 (58.4%, Ob, for Kirsch Import 50th Years, new charred American oak, 156 bottles)

Well, this baby does indeed seem to have been re-racked/finished in heavily charred American oak, as is currently the fashion at Diageo. But that doesn’t mean, absolutely not, that this bottling might be ‘inferior’ to versions matured more naturally (fill a cask and wait thirty years while praying to Vishnu or the Virgin Mary and all the saints). Let’s find out… Colour: full gold. Nose: there’s a little vanilla, crème brûlée and crema catalana, but in perfect balance with Talisker’s very maritime salinity, the whole thing leading to slightly smoky fudge enriched with pine sap. With water: fir liqueur mixed with seawater, with a drop of propolis extract. Mouth (neat): this is very good indeed, with preserved lemons, fir liqueur, cumin and juniper, coriander seed, as well as those famous sardines we mentioned above. The wood and its spices are noticeable, but perfectly integrated. And psst, we must move with the times. With water: everything relaxes, becoming fresher and, I was about to say, more ‘Talisker’. Finish: long, still quite marked by the re-racking, but that has also brought some lovely bitter notes, or so it seems to me. A feeling of salted limoncello and oysters in the aftertaste. Comments: a genuine miracle, I was afraid it might seem a little crushed, and certainly too ‘modern’, after those two old Cadenhead splendours, but that wasn’t the case at all. Enough to make us believe in Vishnu or the Virgin Mary (and all her saints). Or in progress.
SGP:465 - 92 points.

(Cheers, Angus)

Check the index of all Talisker we've tasted