Talisker Distillery
Carbost, Isle of Skye
History: This is the oldest working distillery on Skye, being established by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill around 1830. The MacAskills were “Clearance landlords” and it’s safe to say they were not the most popular on the island. They built Talisker distillery with their profits, which to the locals' delight went bankrupt in 1848. Over the next few decades the distillery changed hands several times until 1880 when Roderick Kemp and Alexander Allen took over. They expanded the site and built a distillery pier, which meant the whisky could be put straight onto ships for ex-port rather than floated out to them. In 1916, Talisker was taken over by a grouping of major blenders, John Walker & Sons, John Dewar, WP Lowrie, and the DCL company who would later become Diageo, who still own the distillery to this day.
The whisky: Like many of the other Island single malts, Talisker is bold and packed with flavour. The whisky embodies Skye with its salty sea air, rugged landscape and weather all adding to the character of the liquid. While not as peated as some of the Islay single malts, there is still a wonderful sweet smoke that comes with Talisker. I've got to admit this is one of my all-time favourites and one that I always try to introduce to folks who usually stick to light and easy drinking single malts.
Favourite dram: There are some amazing whiskies in the Talisker portfolio but if you can, get your hands on the 2003 Distiller's Edition, which is finished in amoroso casks. This vintage is full of juicy citrus fruit flavours, with a touch of spice and a aroma of sweet smoke. You can pick it up for around £65.
Why visit? Skye is a truly magical part of Scotland that you really don’t need an excuse to visit but throw in a wonderful whisky distillery and there is definitely no excuse. The distillery is open most of the year apart from the "silent season" – which is when they carry out repairs to help maintain the distillery. This happens during the month of February. Three different tours are offered at Talisker, the standard being the classic 45-minute tour which, for £10, takes you through the process of how they create the whisky and a dram of Talisker at the end. If you want to push the boat out then I would recommend the Talisker tasting tour for £40, which will give you a more in-depth tour of the distillery and five expressions of the whisky to sample at the end. You will need to book ahead for this one as the tour can take up to two hours.
Interesting fact: The “Classic Malt” range by the whisky’s owner has a bit of a cult following. Talisker was actually part of Diageo's original series of six "Classic Malts", with Cragganmore, Dal-whinnie, Glenkinchie, Lagavulin and Oban in the original line-up. This series was first released in 1988, then around 2005 other distilleries were added to the range including Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Glen Elgin, Glen Ord, Knockando and Royal Lochnagar.
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