Talisker

Talisker stands at Carbost on the shore of Loch Harport, on the Isle of Skye. It was founded in 1830 by the brothers Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill and is now owned by Diageo. For a long time it was the only distillery on Skye.

The spirit is made from peated malt and run through five stills, two wash stills and three spirit stills. The lyne arms bend and loop back through a purifier pipe, and the vapours are condensed in worm tubs. Together these give the house character: smoke, sea spray, dried fruit and a peppery finish that many drinkers recognise at once.

The core range runs from Skye and the 10 Year Old, bottled at 45.8%, to the 18 Year Old. Port Ruighe is finished in port casks, Dark Storm leans on heavily charred casks, and 57° North is bottled at that strength. Diageo's yearly Special Releases add cask strength editions such as the 8 year old Tidal Churn, and very old bottlings like the 30 Year Old and 44 Year Old Forests of the Deep appear for collectors.

Independent bottlings under the Talisker name are less common than for many malts, but they do turn up. In our catalogue you will find examples from Douglas Laing's Old Malt Cask, Hunter Laing and Gleann Mór, usually single casks of a decade or so in age.