Whisky Review: Game of Thrones House Greyjoy Talisker Select Reserve

I do not have a good history with Talisker's NAS releases. While some of them such as 57º North or their 175th Anniversary Edition have been fêted within the community, their more recent attempts such as Dark Storm were practically undrinkable. So it was with some trepidation that I bought this whisky, saved only by the fact that it wasn't wildly expensive, so it seemed worth the risk on the off chance that I would get another drinkable Talisker.

This whisky is aged in indeterminate casks (though I'd put some money on recharred hogsheads being in the mix), then bottled at 45.8% probably with coloring and possibly with chill filtration.

Game of Thrones House Greyjoy Talisker Select Reserve

Nose: strong but not unpleasant rounded oak, mossy/herbal peat smoke, incense, gently floral, caramel/butterscotch, a little chocolate. After adding a few drops of water the oak expands, the peat becomes more herbal, and the floral character mostly disappears.

Taste: barrel and malt sweetness beginning up front and continuing all the way through, vague berry fruitiness with floral overtones in the middle. After dilution the oak becomes more tannic and the profile is bittersweet overall.

Finish: bittersweet oak, a touch of peat, sweet berries

While this is a more modern Talisker than I would prefer, it's honestly pretty good. The oak is the defining feature, but it doesn't have the unpleasant character of Dark Storm. I liked that some of the floral character that Talisker can have came out and it had a decent amount of peat without being too sharp.

I won't tell you that this is a must-buy bottle, but if you're a Talisker fan and happen to find it at MSRP, I do think it's worth the price. Just don't pay collector's prices unless you're dead set on having a full set.

Whisky Review: Old Malt Cask Talisker 6 Year 2009/2016

Talisker is one of those distilleries that is not exactly easy to find from indie bottlers. Not as impossible as Oban, but not exactly easy. The exception to the rule has been sub 10 year old single casks, which have been trickling out over the last handful of years. Does Diageo require any bottlers who get ahold of their casks to put it on the market it before it becomes competition for their own 10 Year? Or is it just an attempt to cater to the market for youthful, fiery peated malts?

This whisky was distilled in November 2009, filled into a sherry hogshead, then bottled in November 2016 at 50% without coloring or chill filtration for K&L Wines.

Thanks to Florin for splitting this bottle with me.

Old Malt Cask Talisker 6 Year 2009/2016 Cask HL 12934 for K&L

Nose: thick savory sherry, dry peat smoke, herbal, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, pineapple, clean malt in the background. After adding a few drops of water it takes on a more youthful cast with the herbal/grassy elements amplified, the sherry pushed into the background, and the peat taking on a fresher/less smoky mode.

Taste: youthful sharpness up front, unfolding into moderately sweet sherry, some heat around the middle, then fading into malt and savory peat with oak in the background at the back. After dilution the sherry becomes more balanced between sweetness and savoriness, the oak spreads out and gives it a bittersweet profile overall,

Finish: savory, dry peat smoke, sherry residue, clean malt, moderate oak - rounded but not particularly sweet

While I've been confused by all these young Taliskers hitting the market over the last few years, but I have to admit that this one works. The cask is active enough to round off some of the edges, without completely demolishing the spirit and turning it into just another sherry bomb. Reducing this cask to 50% was a good choice as it gives enough intensity to be interesting without the heat being overwhelming.

At the same time, I can imagine putting this together with a bourbon cask or two after another couple of years and coming out with something even better when they've had some more time to develop. Will we see any of those in future? I suspect not given the current trends, but we can hope.

For a very different take on this whisky, see MAO's less than positive review.

Whisky Review: Talisker 25 Year - 2012 Release

Some of the most anticipated bottles from Talisker over the last decade have been the roughly annual releases of their 25 Year Old whisky. While most well-known for the fiery 10 Year, these older whiskies represent the distillery burnished with age. All of the casks used in the 25 Year are refill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, which should keep the spirit from being completely overwhelmed by oak. While traditionally bottled at cask strength (batch strength, really, but that's semantics), the 2011 and 2012 releases of Talisker 25 Year changed, opted instead for the distillery's standard 45.8% ABV. This particular is bottle #5883 of 6318 from the 2012 release. That represents less than half the outturn of the 2005 release; considering that it was reduced from cask strength and given demand for old whiskies these days, that says a lot about the distillery's thinning stocks. No wonder their latest releases have all been NAS.

Talisker 25 Year - 2012 Release

Nose: floral perfume over rich caramel, red wine and dank (reduced raisin syrup) sherry over a solid malt core, well-integrated (but slightly sour) peat and wood smoke, barrel char and vanilla, tired oak, used tea leaves, hints of cured meat, some seaweed/seashore. After adding a few drops of water, the malt comes to the fore, with a certain cardboard-y quality to the oak that reinforces my sense that the casks are tired, the sherry and cured meat hang in the background, but the peat has faded and integrated substantially, with some strange herbal/vegetal notes appearing, and maritime saltiness and barbecue sauces notes finally showing up.

Taste: sherry and malt sweetness up front, becoming drier but more malty further back, which is joined by Talisker pepper, mocha, and tired oak, with a suggestion of peat and more dark chocolate at the end. After dilution, it gets a bit watery, with malt and wood sweetness (drifting towards pure cane sugar) dominating, a thread of sherry dances through the palate (with growing intensity after some time in the glass), and there are more tannins at the back, with the peat becoming kind of muddy.

Finish: chipotle chili pepper, mild seashore peat and fresh herbs, cigarette ash, oak, malt, and sherry/sour wine

I think I would have appreciated this whisky better without the context of other Taliskers. I'm sad to say that I don't find this substantially better than the Talisker 10 Year I reviewed a couple of years ago. While much of the youthful vigor has been lost, it's hard to say what has been gained from the extra fifteen years in oak. The floral notes, while nice, weren't out of line with what I found in the 2000/2011 Talisker Distiller's Edition, so it doesn't necessarily take a lot of time to acquire those aromas. The cask selection doesn't seem to be top-notch, as the oak has that tired, somewhat cardboard-y character. In reducing the bottling proof since the 2011 release, it seems like the flavors have been flattened. It may also be that it's even been chill-filtered and colored (when a Diageo product doesn't say otherwise, I usually assume that it is). This may give it broader appeal, but also makes it a less than wholly satisfying experience for the amount of money Diageo wants for it these days.

While I was quite looking forward to trying an older Talisker, I am extremely thankful to have bought this on sale (~$150) and to have split it with a number of other people (you can find MAO's review here and hopefully Michael will post one soon) - I can handle disappointment when I only had to pay for a quarter of the bottle. Between the 25 Year and Talisker Dark Storm, the distillery does not seem to be putting out winners lately.

Whisky Review: Talisker Dark Storm

This release is a travel retail-only version of Talisker's NAS Storm. It purports to be aged in 'charred casks', which is an effectively meaningless phrase as all scotch whisky is aged in charred casks. My thoughts as to what it really means after the tasting notes.

As with most Talisker releases, this was bottled at 45.8%, though I suspect that it is chill filtered and possibly colored.

Thanks to Ian of PDXWhisky for this sample.

Talisker Dark Storm

Nose: rather floral on top (diminishing with time), new lumber and malt underneath, some woody dry fruit, sour vegetal peat, savory caramel, dusty grain, vanilla, subtle sherry/bourbon fruit notes and sweet raisins, wood smoke/char, brown rice, youth is barely covered by the casks, cardboard. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes more savory with a sort of woody meat pie quality and some brown sugar/maple notes come out.

Taste: very woody throughout with new lumber character, sucrose sweetness from the drop - fading towards the back, peat is hard to find through the thicket of oak, some raisin notes from mid to the back. After dilution, the flavor profile flattens dramatically - almost no development with overlapping lumber and sucrose sweetness all the way through, with raisins, bitter wood char, and some salt showing up right at the back.

Finish: rather tannic wood, sour peat residue, raisins, and unpleasantly sweet edge

This is lowest common denominator whisky. Almost all of Talisker's distinctive character has been stripped out, leaving sweetness, wood, and a bit of peat. If I didn't know already, it would be hard to peg where this whisky is from. Might have guessed Caol Ila, blind.

I have a hunch that this may be whisky from rejuvenated casks, which would explain the intense sweetness coupled with fresh lumber yard wood. It has a lot of the flaws of craft whiskey, with the same sort of wood flavors that you get when a distiller is trying to speed up extraction. Sadly this seems to be where a lot of new whisky is headed these days.

I'm glad to have tried this, mostly because it's going to keep me away from Talisker's NAS releases. They appear to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for the travel retail market. While even the standard 10 Year appears to be losing some quality, it's likely still better than this.

Whisky Review: Classic Malts Isles of Scotland Collection

This is one of Diageo's 3x200 mL sets that collect whiskies from their Classic Malts under some sort of theme. This set pulls together their whiskies from the islands of Skye and Islay, which share some similarities in production methods and flavor. However there are some major differences, such as the six years between the youngest and the oldest whisky in this pack.

The packaging is absolutely top-notch and would make a fantastic gift for any whisky-loving friend as you get to try three different whiskies for roughly the price of one. And importantly for me, it's the only one of the Classic Malts sets that I've seen for sale in the United States, via City Wine Cellar in Staten Island, NY. If you've been looking to sample some fine peated whiskies, this is a very reasonable way to do so.

Talisker 10 Year Old 

Nose: mild but definitely present vegetal peat, briny, roasted vegetables, dry-ish, ripe apples, ash/cigarettes, light honied malt, brown/wood sugar, caramel, slightly charred oak, a hint of sherry and vanilla. After adding a few drops of water, the nose becomes earthier, with more of a barbecue note and a touch of balsamic vinegar, creamier and with a stronger sherry presence

Taste: honied, then sugary malt up front, then a touch of sherry and fruit, brine, and a dash of black pepper, followed by mild vegetal/smokey peat and oak tannins. After dilution, the flavors become more integrated, with the sweetness extending back and the peat extending forward on the palate, a definite raspberry note develops mid-palate, plus more tannic oak

Finish: mild peat, slightly bitter, off-dry sherry (amontillado?), lingering pepper. After dilution some floral notes emerge, with more subdued peat and pepper

Talisker 10 is bottled at their traditional 45.8% ABV. The distillery peats its malt to a relatively high 20 PPM, which is about half of the level of the other two Islay whiskies. Though oddly, one time that I was sampling this whisky, the peat seemed to almost disappear after adding water, leaving something that reminded me strongly of Hazelburn.

I've gotten to try this one before and my more hurried impression jibes fairly well with what I got out of the whisky after more time. I've also tried its more sherried sibling, Talisker Distiller's Edition, and they're an interesting contrast. Now I can definitely see how the underlying malt is modified by the extra aging in amaroso sherry casks. The basic Talisker malt seems to get just a hint of fruitiness that reminds me of sherry, which suggests that there's at least a little bit of sherried malt in there already. However, I also feel like the DE gets slightly better cask selection, with more robust flavors than its more humble sibling. Given that the Distiller's Edition can go for as little as $15 more than the 10 Year, I'd say its worth putting up the extra cash, especially if you like the peat/sherry combo.

Caol Ila 12 Year Old

Nose: lighter, more refined vegetal peat, a touch of sweet barbecue, gentle brine, almonds/marzipan, bread/pastry, fruity bubblegum, lemon verbena, pine/juniper, rubbery malt. After adding some water, it becomes maltier and earthier, with spritz cookies and a bit of soap or fresh laundry.

Taste: thin, creamy, sugary, malty sweetness up front, then pine/juniper, black pepper, and mild peat. After dilution, it becomes sweeter and more integrated, with the malt and peat extending further back and forward, respectively, overlapping with the black pepper.

Finish: light peat/malt, a trace of bitter cacao, residual pepper, a hint of lemon

Caol Ila is a new one for me and it's quite the treat to try this Islay whisky. The distillery is located in Port Askaig near the northeast corner of the island, just down the road from Bunnahabhain. Established in 1846, the distillery initially did not fare well, but has gone on to become one of the most productive distilleries on the island, providing the bulk of Diageo's peated whisky needs. The entry-level version is bottled at 43%, like most of the Dieageo's single malts. Unlike the other two whiskies in this set, Caol Ila 12 comes from whisky aged entirely in ex-bourbon casks, without any sherry influence. While there is a bit of fruitiness, the focus is definitely on the interaction between the malt and peat. I was particularly intrigued by the pine/juniper notes I found in the whisky, which gives it a gin/genever sort of quality. I was also pleased at how well it stood up to dilution, given the relatively low bottling strength. Overall, a very tasty single malt that makes me look forward to digging into the Caol Ila Collection I picked up recently, which includes the Cask Strength and 18 Year Old versions alongside the standard 12 Year Old.

Lagavulin 16 Year Old

Nose: very delicate, creamy, vegetal peat, underlying richness, light oloroso sherry with a bit of sweetness, slightly malty, brine, barbecue. After adding water, the barbecue moves forward, with some meaty bacon, smokier, less vegetal peat, greenish malt/oats, and floral/fruity sherry.

Taste: sherry/wine/vinegar sweet/sour up front, then berries, black pepper and malt, followed by vegetal/ashy peat and mild oak. After dilution, the opening becomes more sweetly fruity, which lingers throughout the sip, the peat retreats slightly and becomes more vegetal than smoky, and the oak becomes more bitter.

Finish: black pepper, sherry, a touch of peat, anise, and oak tannins

Lagavulin is Diageo's second Islay distillery. The distillery was founded in 1816 in the town of Port Ellen, alongside two other well-known Islay distilleries, Ardbeg and Laphroaig. Its history with the latter is particularly convoluted, as there were numerous conflicts between Lagavulin and Laphroaig, with an attempt made in 1908 and continuing until 1962 within Lagavulin to copy Laphroaig's whisky with an operation called Malt Mill. The unrealized goal was to push Laphroaig out of business, but it was obviously unsuccessful and Malt Mill was folded back into Lagavulin when the distillery was rebuilt in the 1960s.

For much of Lagavulin's recent history, the 16 year old expression was the only one available. The passing of the 1990s brought out the Pedro Ximenez-finished Distiller's Edition, which was later joined by a cask-strength 12 year old, in addition to sporadic 20+ year old special releases. Through it all the 16 YO has formed the core of the brand and its not hard to see why. While both Lagavulin and Caol Ila get their peated malt (~35 PPM) from Port Ellen and the final whiskies are bottled at the same 43% ABV, their products are very different. Lagavulin has been smoothed by by its extra four years in oak, as well as the addition of sherry cask-aged whisky into the mix. While Caol Ila is comparatively fresh and malty, Lagavulin seems more august, with more barbecue-like peat and the rich fruitiness of sherry.

Overall, if you haven't tried any of the whiskies in this collection, I would highly recommend picking it up. It's a great way to get to compare a very fine set of peating whiskies without spending too much money. I don't think I can pick a favorite out of the bunch as they all have their charms, but the Talisker and Lagavulin might edge out the Caol Ila by a hair. I'll be very interested to try Caol Ila 18 and see if a few extra years in oak give it some extra body to help compete with the sherried richness of the other two. However, in terms of value, I think the Talisker wins among this bunch as it has exceedingly good balance and the lowest price point out of the three. The Lagavulin was very good, but I'm not sure if it's sufficiently better to make me want to pay for a full bottle.

Whisky Review: Talisker Distiller's Edition 2000

While I've put up a review of Talisker DE before, that was from a dram at a bar, so I didn't get as much time to spend with the whisky as I would have liked. Fortunately I managed to get a bottle of the 2011 release and have finally got around to properly tasting it.

Talisker is the only distillery on the island of Skye. The island lies off the northwest corner of Scotland, between the mainland and the isles of Lewis and Harris. While the temperatures are extremely temperate due to the moderating influence of the ocean, the weather is anything but, regularly lashing the island with wind and rain. The distillery was built nearly two hundred years ago in 1831, having since changed hands a number of times before ending up in the Diageo portfolio. Talisker's whisky is known for having a moderate (~20 ppm) level of peat as well as a heavy dose of pepper and some maritime characteristics.

The 2011 release was originally distilled in 2000, making it roughly an 11 year old whisky. As with all of Diageo's Distiller's Edition whiskies, it was aged in a fortified wine cask for an indeterminate amount of time (more info, please, Diageo) after some period in standard ex-bourbon barrels. In this case, the whisky was finished in Amoroso sherry casks. Amoroso sherry is a mixture of dry Oloroso sherry that has been sweetened, usually with Pedro Ximenez sherry. This is similar to the East India Solera sherry that I reviewed a while back.

Talisker Distiller's Edition 2000


Nose: soft fruit, strong floral notes, malty sweetness, underlying creamy peat reek with well integrated TCP intertwined with wood spices, rubbery sherry, chipotle pepper, a hint of brine, oak, vanilla, a bit of banana, charcoal. After adding water, the malt becomes more prominent, while the peat, sherry and floral notes are somewhat subdued.

Taste: malty, sugary sweetness up front, pepper comes on strong early on the tongue and maintains its heat, peat builds slowly towards the back of the mouth, sherry comes in mid-palate, becomes earthy, trending towards bitter mocha. After a few drops of water, the whisky gets a little bit less sweet up front, but sweeter at the back, and everything but the pepper is slightly toned down.

Finish: classic Talisker pepper, bitter, peat, cacao, oak, and a hint of sherry

This is very different from the barbecue-heavy, peat-forward version that I tried back in December. The nose is very, very floral, with the peat taking on a more vegetal rather than smoky aspect. It makes me think of what Aberlour 12 would taste like if the distillery used peated malt. Also similar to Aberlour, the sherry influence is relatively subdued, providing some underlying fruitiness, but not dominating the other elements of the spirit. I prefer the peat-heavy version, but this is a rather interesting study in how much variety can come from a single distillery, even when they're nominally trying to produce the same whisky each time. It'll also be interesting to compare this to a small bottle I have of Talisker DE that was distilled in 1992, which will be part of a Talisker vertical tasting that I have planned.

Cocktail Camp PDX, Part I

This last Sunday I attended the Cocktail Camp event held here in Portland put together by Basil & Co.

Thankfully I was alerted to this event by the fine people at the Reddit Cocktail forum, as I hadn't heard anything about it even a week beforehand.

The event was held in the Pearl District in a rather nice space that had both a lounge-style area with a bar, where the cocktail social hours were held, and a larger space with tables where the presentations were made. You can find lots of photos of the event from the official Flickr stream.

Things got off to a bit of a late start, but this was also reasonably early on a sunny Sunday morning when I'm guessing many of the attendees would have otherwise been eating brunch outside. The first talk was given by Colin Howard of House Spirits and Tony Devencenzi of Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco. They explained some methodology for tasting and how to determine whether or not a given spirit will work in a particular cocktail. They began with the basics, such as selecting good glassware with a tulip shape that will simultaneously give the spirit a large amount of surface area for vaporization and a narrow neck to concentrate the vapors for nosing. In terms of methods, they described a few techniques such as:

• smelling up the nose - carefully drawing the vapors from the spirit further and further up the nose to find different smells in different parts of the nose
• rinsing the mouth with the spirit you're tasting to clear out any other lingering flavors from previously consumed items
• letting a bit of spirit rest under the tongue to let some of it vaporize
• allowing the spirit to move in a directed manner across different parts of the tongue to find different flavors

Tony on the left and Colin on the right discuss tasting with Stone Barn Brandywork's Hard Eight Dark Rye Spirit

What I found most interesting was the discussion of how to think about how a spirit will contribute to a cocktail. One of the fundamental concepts was that you often want to pick spirits that leave room for other flavors. If a spirit is going to crowd out the other elements of a cocktail then it won't integrate in a harmonious fashion. So you want to pick spirits that will contribute to but not overwhelm the cocktail. Another concept was making cocktails either point or counterpoint, which is to say picking ingredients that either reinforce each other or play off each other. The example used was the Manhattan. Making it point would be to pick a whiskey like Rittenhouse, which is bold and spicy, and pairing it with a bold and spicy sweet vermouth like Punt e Mes. On the other side, but still point, would be using a whiskey like Maker's Mark, which is soft and sweet, and pairing it with a gentle sweet Vermouth like Vya. Counterpoint would be swapping those around, such as Rittenhouse with Vya or Maker's Mark with Punt e Mes. In that case each ingredient would offer opposite characteristics, which means that one will probably dominate the other. You can still balance a counterpoint cocktail by shifting the proportions, such as using more whisky and less sweet vermouth in the Maker's Mark/Punt e Mess combo. While these are notions that I've picked up over the last couple of years in an intuitive sense, I'll be thinking about it more consciously from now on.

The second talk was on the histories and varieties of scotch whisky, given by Stuart Ramsay, a Scottish transplant to Portland who runs whisk(e)y classes in the area. He began with a quick overview of the state of scotch whisky, noting how much of the demand is currently being driven by drinkers in India, China and Brazil, which also means an emphasis on blended whisky rather than single malts. This led into a bit of history. Whisky is likely a by-product of the much older local beer industry, which would have been made with malted barley and any other grains that would grow in the area (bere, oats, wheat). When distillation arrived in the British Isles in the late 11th century, Scottish farmers were quick to realize that it could be used to concentrate their relatively weak beer into a potent and compact drink. It remained a mostly local drink up until the mid-19th century. Two events at that point in time had a profound impact on the scotch whisky industry. The first was the introduction of the Coffey or continuous still, which allowed for much lighter-bodied whiskies to be distilled. The second was a change in the availability of international spirits in England. Brandy and Irish whiskey were the drinks of choice among fashionable Londoners until the Phylloxera outbreak of the 1850s wiped out almost all of the grapes in France, crippling the brandy industry. Entrepreneurial Scottish merchants tried to sell their local tipple down south, but few consumers were interested in such a harsh, unrefined spirit. Many of those merchants, such as John Walker, the Chivas Brothers and Whyte & Mackay, were grocers who also sold fortified wines such as sherry, port and Madeira. It was suggested that aging the harsh, unaged 'clearac' whisky in used fortified wine barrels would help to take the edge off the spirit and produce a more marketable product. The combination of aging and blending in lighter grain whisky produced by Coffey stills made whiskies that were enormously popular, especially when mixed with soda water. However this meant that most of the malt whisky ended up in blends rather than being bottled as single malt scotch. The popularity of single malts is a much more recent phenomenon, having become a real trend only around the 1980s or so. With that said, roughly 90% of the malt whisky made in Scotland is still used in blends.

Stuart Ramsay's props, including malted barley, peat, cask wood, miniature still and Strathisla samples

As demonstrations, he passed around jars of malted barley, including a variety usually used for making beer, the variety usually used for making single malt whisky, and a peated version of the malted barley used for making whisky. He also passed showed us a lump of peat and talked about how it is formed in bogs and its use in drying malt.

After the history lesson, we were led through a series of tastings of single malt whiskies. I jotted down notes furiously, but the pours were small and time was tight, so I wasn't able to get as much out of them as I would have hoped. He began by passing around three samples from the Strathisla Distillery (the base for Chivas blended whisky), which I was able to smell briefly:

Unaged Clearac - vegetal, a touch fruity

Ex-Bourbon Barrel Aged - bourbony sweet, nuts, maple syrup

Ex-Sherry Barrel Aged - heavy maple syrup, spicy, sherry

Then we began with two lighter single malt whiskies from the Lowlands and Speyside:

Glenkinchie 12


Nose: floral, just ripe fruits a hint of malt and a touch of sherry

Taste: barely sweet, very grainy, sour and slightly floral/herbal at the back

Finish: floral/herbal, slightly bitter

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this whisky more than I feared, given some of the less than stellar reviews I've read. While it's definitely light, the floral emphasis was quite nice and made for a whisky that I can imagine sipping on a warmer day. However, Stuart did bemoan the demise of Rosebank, a now shuttered Lowland distillery, which produced superior whisky until it was bought and shut down by Diageo.

Glen Grant 10


Nose: medium sherry, sweet, floral, rather fruity, a touch of chocolate

Taste: very light, not very sweet, a bit malty, floral and bitter near the end

Finish: floral and bittersweet

While not my favorite Speyside whisky ever, this wasn't half bad. Everything was just a bit too light for my taste (which could probably be solved by bumping up the bottling proof from 40%), but it made a nice bridge from the very light Lowlander to the heftier Highland and Island single malts that we were about to consume.

We then moved to two different Highland whiskies from Glenmorangie (which I've reviewed before).

Glenmorangie Original


Nose: fruity, malt, brown sugar, chocolate

Taste: sweet, floral, slightly bitter at the end

Finish: light

This is almost always the first whisky I suggest that people new to single malt whisky start with. While relatively light, its flavors are still sufficiently bold to hold my interest, but not so complex that it requires a lot of attention. A truly classic whisky.

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban


Nose: port, chocolate, sweet

Taste: very spicy, port wine

Finish: port wine

Sadly I was quite rushed on this one and wasn't able to get many notes, but I've sung paeans to it for good reason. This is one of the most delightfully lush whiskies I've ever had the fortune to sip and would still recommend it over a lot of other sweet, unpeated whiskies. An excellent example of what wine-finishing can do for whisky.

Next we moved to two medium-peated island whiskies from Skye and Islay.

Talisker 10


Nose: peat, barbecue, creamy malt, brown sugar, floral

Taste: sweet up front, big spice further back, surprisingly light

Finish: pepper, peat

This was my first time trying Talisker 10 and it did not disappoint. While not quite as rich as its sherry cask finished sibling, it was still quite a tasty whisky. I have two 200 mL bottles of this waiting to be reviewed, so I should be able to come back with something much more in depth in the not too distant future.

Bowmore 15 Darkest


Nose: sherry, surprisingly light peat

Taste: sweet sherry, nuts, pepper

Finish: gentle smoke, pepper

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this whisky was. Most of the reviews noted it as being rather tepid, but I find it pretty enjoyable even after the spicy punch of the Talisker. While it probably would be even better at a higher bottling proof, I'm just intrigued enough to keep my eye out for a good deal on this one. Hopefully I'll be able to snag a bottle some day and give you a more complete review.

Lastly, a bruiser from Islay.

Ardbeg 10


Nose: lovely peat, very fresh, sweet grain, mouthwash

Taste: very sweet up front, pepper, peat and smoke further back, minty

Finish: smoke and peat

All hail peat. Seriously, I used to be downright scared of the stuff, even from a relatively mild whisky like Highland Park 12. But I have seen the light and Ardbeg is delicious. The whipsaw from intense sweetness at the beginning of the sip to the blast of spice and peat was utterly delightful. I'm a convert.

Overall I thought that these were very well selected whiskies for displaying the range of what single malt whisky can offer. While the pours could have been a bit healthier, it would have been nice to have better glasses for nosing (tumblers are about as bad as it gets), and I really would have liked to have had more time to spend with each whisky, it was extremely well put together given the constraints. I'm quite interested in checking out some of the other whisky classes that Stuart offers here in the Portland area.

That's it for Part I of my Cocktail Camp report. Coming up I'll talk about the second half, when I finally got around to drinking some cocktails and got some really great information about how to host a cocktail party and what to do with bitter aperitifs and digestifs.

Whisky Review: Talisker Distiller's Edition and Oban 14

Much like my Cask Strength Shootout post, these are provisional reviews, as I only tried these whiskies once. Still, they were large drams, so I got a fairly good sense of what was going on.

Talisker Distiller's Edition (98 or 99?)


Nose: barbecue peat smoke with honey sweetness underneath, a little bit of oiliness, pine sap and sherry if you dig for it, which gains some brown sugar and molasses notes while the barbecue smells win out over the peat after a bit of water

Taste: slightly sweet up front, strong pepper mid-palate, dried fruits, citrus, malt and a touch of bitterness leading into the finish, which becomes a bit more subdued and creamy after dilution

Finish: gentle barbecue smoke, chocolate and what I thought of as a mash-up between the nose and early palate

This is the whisky that finally convinced me that peat smoke could be a good thing. After flipping through Michael Jackson's scotch guide for a while, I finally just asked the bartender for a suggestion for something similar to Highland Park. He suggested Talisker and the DE was only $1 more than the basic 10 Year. And I was in heaven. I really like the spicy barbecue flavors that come with the smoke. I still need to try the Talisker 10, so I don't know if this is just a feature of their whisky or something that comes out of the extra maturation in sherry casks, but it's really delicious. I'm even considering some Islay whiskies now, which were pretty much the opposite of what I was interested in when I started. How things change...

Oban 14 Year


Nose: PX sherry, raisins, a hint of peat and a bit of orange peel, with the peat and sherry becoming more harmonious after adding a few drops of water

Taste: lightly sweet up front, malt, a bit of sherry, and orange mocha going into the finish, which becomes a bit sweeter and more peppery after dilution

Finish: sweet and malty, with a touch of sherry, which evolves into bitter chocolate malt after adding water

It was a bit of a mistake for this to be the second whisky of the night after the Talisker. I have a feeling that this is a better and more complex scotch than it seemed at the time, but after the brawny island smoke, it just couldn't stand up. I'd really like to try more, but the price point is just a bit hard to justify when the somewhat similar Clynelish 14 is nearly $30 less. If anyone has a lead on a store that will sell and ship it to me for under $60 I'd love to try it again, but right now it's a little way down my 'to buy' list.