Talisker 18 year old

You can say that again!

I have a Talisker 25 that I'll be opening over Christmas.

I'll try to remember to post some notes.

Jim

I actually meant to post rather more than that. I have drunk whisky, on and off for a few years now, but usually just a common blend, bells etc, to wind down on a Friday. Christmas, Birthdays, the wife would get me a single malt, usually a Glen something, but a couple of times lagavulin.

I was amazed when I first smelled the peat in the Islay, but was more amazed by the seaweed / seafront smells and taste from the Talisker

1. Quite astounding.

Like I say, I have drunk whisky for years, but with this bottle I actually ENJOY whisky...many of you will no doubt have reached that point

I'm a big fan of the standard release. One of the things I like about it is its 'wildness' and in your face pepper etc. Is that lost with the 18?

The 18 seems a little sweeter and gentler to me, but the pepper and the salty smoky aspects are still there. Same thing with older Ardbegs. They don't grab you by the throat like the 10 does, but there is more to discover if you treat it gently.

I rarely try another expression of a malt whose standard release is uninteresting. One exception is with the Aberlour. The 10-year-old is not awful, but not very interesting either. But the a'bunadh is to sherried malts as a young Ardbeg is to island malts. Assertive, and impossible to ignore. (I took someone's advice to try the a'bunadh despite my experience with the standard release.)