I
wasn’t intending to buy any single malt that Sunday afternoon. I
was actually looking for Christmas themed beers, but when I saw a new
Talisker expression with £13 off, it made me ask what the point was
in having a booze budget, if I couldn’t take advantage of offers
like this. When it came to money for buying spirits on our upcoming
trip to Canada, I’d just have to make do, one way or the other.
So
it was £25. Sure enough, this isn’t the renowned Talisker 10,
which I’ve also bought at such a bargain price before, but that
doesn’t make it any less worth £25. Yes, it may be made of younger
spirit, it may be a no age statement offering (following in the
footsteps of Talisker’s other recent offerings, Storm and 57
Degrees North – neither of which I’ve tried beyond a single
free sample), it probably isn’t going to be as good as the Talisker
10… but so? It is still bottled at 45.8% and you never know, I
might actually enjoy it more.
For
all intents and purposes, it looks pretty much the same. The label is
blue this time, and it is called “Skye”. Of particular note
though, is that instead of a box, this one is packaged in a
little maritime style bag that fastens with… paper fasteners, I
think they’re called. It’s a nice touch, though I can’t deny
that I nearly dropped the bottle, struggling to extract it.
I
know, I probably shouldn’t be encouraging this move towards no age
statement expressions by buying them, but it was £25! A note,
though; you shouldn’t just take up offers willy-nilly, or you’ll
always be settling for the kind of things you can get cheap in your
local supermarket. You can find out what I thought last time I tried
some NAS bottlings incidentally, here where I have a close
look at releases by Ardmore and Bowmore.
It
could go either way, looking at online impressions. User reviews
encompass the whole range from sublime to undrinkable. Let’s find
out for ourselves.
Mrs
Cake looked over as I was removing the seal, and said with razor
sharp incisiveness, “booze is a great hobby. Because it’s like
buying yourself a present but, not only do you get the excitement of
buying the present, you also get the excitement of opening it.”
It’s
beautiful that, isn’t it? I’d never thought of it that way, even
though I’ve always been well aware that I get excited both at the
moment of purchase, and even more so at the moment of opening (which
can often be several months later). Just now, I can’t think of any
other presents or purchases that give pleasure like that. You could
buy tickets to see your favourite band, but you’re not excited
about the tickets, you’re looking forward to going to the show.
Maybe that is the same. Anyway, I think it’s beautiful.
Speaking
of beautiful, how nice is this Talisker Skye? I’m not
kidding, this is superb. Even the first glass out of the bottle was
all it could be. Grassy and malty on the nose – a classic whisky
smell, silky, full-bodied, sweet and full of delights, but with none
of the negative edges that can sometimes hide in your single malts.
Just a joy all the way down.
The
last time I had a bottle of the 10 year old, I noticed how it took
around 6 months for the spirit to develop into something sublime.
This, despite no doubt being a blend of younger stocks, is already
what the Talisker 10 finally managed to be. Probably even better –
and being this good, I’ll be very surprised if there is any left in
6 months’ time to see how it compares then.
Really,
the youth was quite undetectable until I tried a glass after the
very classy Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit. I’ll definitely have the
Talisker first if I drink both of these on the same night in future,
but nevertheless, a slight hint of youth shouldn’t be considered
detrimentally.
I
took a break from the Skye of a few weeks when I decided to open a
bottle of Crown Royal at the same time as the Crown Royal Northern
Harvest Rye. I’ll be writing much more about those later, but the
point I want to make is that my return to the Skye resulted in
absolute delight. This is such a beautifully balanced whisky that I’m
thinking I already have a front runner for the 2016 spirit of the
year. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though; there’s lots of
drinking still to come this year.
All
in all though, you ought to give the Talisker Skye a try. Very, very
good value.
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