Talikser 41 y/o - The Bodega Series - 50,7%
Photo taken somewhere in Stuttgart
The oldest Talisker ever bottled, according to Diageo. Matured in 100 years old sherry butts. Strong superlatives we are handling here. Let's approach this monolith without any expectations (as if that's humanly possible).
Nose
Okay...we already expected (there we are) that the casks would tame the wild character of the destillate over the decades, but we even understated. It's extremely gentle and delicate with subtile whiffs of seaspray and dark fruits, which can't be precised at this point. A little musty and woody. We also get some honey, harvested from a coastal bee-hive. The peat has almost disappeared over the years. We just get an idea of it. And there it ends..
Palate
On the palate it's very rounded and smooth, with salted caramell (very english) and a quick whiff of pepper (homeopathic). Roasted honey mixed in brine, with citrus cake and butterscotch. It is fine and perfectly balanced, that's a fact. Anyway the casks didn't completely flood the destillate. The wild rebel has become an old snob in this case. How sad..
Finish
Long. Finally we get some "Taliskerness" with white pepper and salty lemons.
Rating
Is this how we want our Talisker, question mark. It is a very fine dram, no doubt. But it was pretty quiet and shy, which is everything but our beloved stormy friend from the rough Island of Skye. After having tried most of the core range expressions, we feel that (at least modern) Taliskers are best when bottled young (think about the fabulous 8 year old, from last year). More power, more sea, more chilly and pepper and accordingly more fun. Shall we start talking price-value ratio?
Enough philosophy, il conti per favore!
