Talisker Storm Whisky Review!

Storm was the first in the range of recently launched non-age statement Taliskers, hitting the shelves back in 2013. It's been a few years since I last tasted it, so this'll be fun!

Talisker Distillery, located in the village of Carbost on the Isle of Skye, produces some excellent whisky. The 10 Year Old, 18 Year Old and higher strength 57 North are tasty and dependable drams, and the 8 Year Old Cask Strength from 2018's Special Releases was fantastic. You would think that five core range bottlings (including the yearly Distiller's Edition and 25-year old) and the occasional limited release would be enough, and it would be for many distilleries. But Talisker go way beyond that, adding the non-age statement Skye, Storm, Port Ruighe, Dark Storm and Neist Point expressions to that line-up. In fairness the latter two are travel retail / duty free exclusive, but there are also a few older releases above all of these that I haven't included in the list. All of which adds up to a massive range of single malts for what is a medium-sized distillery that produces around two-three million litres of spirit (no official figures are available) per year. But that's not all folks, Talisker malt whisky is also a major component of quite a few blended whiskies, most famously the Johnnie Walker range - particularly Black Label. The distillery's marketing department is certainly kept busy, or maybe the marketing department is keeping the distillery team busy!

As part of Diageo's Classic Malts the distillery gets plenty of time in the limelight, and although Lagavulin isn't far behind these days Talisker would still have to be the most well-known of the  bunch. Adding to that fame is the "Made by the Sea" tagline, and the fact that despite being overwhelmingly matured on the Scottish mainland rather than on Skye, many of the distillery's whiskies do have an undeniable maritime / coastal character. Some more than others, though. Another point that adds to that fame is the reasonable pricing of the venerable 10-year old expression, which has been around for a long, long time now and can be seen sitting on the back bar in pretty much any decent bar or pub around the world. That sort of market penetration gives a product quite the following over time, and each time the distillery releases a new younger bottling the whisky world holds their breath, pitchforks at the ready, awaiting the news that the 10-year old has been discontinued. But - touch wood - it hasn't happened yet, and the 10-year old is still a dependable single malt that can be found for a reasonable price, albeit significantly higher than it was a few years ago, since it now has to sit above a couple of those newer non-age statement bottlings that I mentioned above. If you ask me Talisker has always been a great introductory light-medium peated whisky, but it seems that some feel differently, thinking it too intense for the novice palate, which they addressed by introducing milder and more tame expressions. And many other distilleries have done the same in the last few years.

That said, that may not be the case here. The idea behind Talisker Storm is that it's "an intense Talisker, with a profoundly maritime character". Which translates to it being more intense than the venerable 10-year old, and to achieve that they've used a mix of refill and rejuvenated (shaved & re-toasted or re-charred) American oak casks - so probably all of the ex-bourbon variety - of different ages. Thankfully they've largely stuck to their traditional bottling strength of 45.8% ABV in this expression, and most of their bottlings for that matter, but on the flip-side the vast majority of Talisker whisky is chill filtered and pumped full of E150a artificial colouring, and Storm is no exception to that. After being rather disappointed with the non-age statement Game of Thrones Talisker bottling (House Greyjoy, reviewed here), and not being a huge fan of the travel retail expression Dark Storm, both of which were partly- or fully-matured in heavily charred refill ex-bourbon casks, I'm interested to see how this one fares. Will this Talisker be more of a Talisker? Or will this 'Storm' turn out to be more of a light breeze? Time to find out...

Talisker Storm, NAS, 45.8%. Skye, Scotland.
Matured in rejuvenated (shaved & re-toasted / re-charred) and refill ex-bourbon casks. Chill filtered, artificially coloured.

Colour: Amber-gold. Does look paler than the 10-year old actually, possibly less added colouring?

Nose: A little flat and bitter to start with. Salted caramel, some baked apple and marzipan. The Talisker salt & pepper are there, but they're a little muted and there's much more salt than there is pepper. Some damp wood, or even driftwood comes through with extra time, as does some stewed stone fruit with a slight bitter note behind it.

Texture: There's that intensity that they were talking about, wouldn't have guessed that from the nose. Light-medium weight, relatively clean but with a little peat & chilli spice.

Taste: A little sour, more salt and pepper here, plus that salted caramel, and dry charred oak rather than the damp driftwood. There's a nice dry earthy peat to this Talisker, plus a solid pinch of dry chilli flakes, and a very slight iodine note.

Finish: Medium length. There's more of that bitterness here, plus a little tangy sourness. Charred fresh oak and a little pepper, and that dry earthy peat adds a little more depth. Slight bitter liquorice and stewed stone fruit to finish, and that slight iodine note again.

Score: 2.5 out of 5. Not miles away from a 3 though.

Notes: I do get the extra intensity in the Storm compared to the standard 10-year old, but overall this is still quite a mild whisky. Which is fine of course, but an Islay and/or cask strength drinker won't find this to be an intense dram and could be a little disappointed after reading the marketing blurb. But it does have a decent depth of flavour for what is a relatively lightly peated, crowd-pleasing malt. If it had been non-chill filtered and perhaps slightly higher strength then things would've been turned up a notch, but the distillery has stuck to their guns on both counts. It does have that notable maritime influence that a lot of the more recent NAS Taliskers (particularly the 'Skye' expression) are missing, and there's more of the pepper & peat that Talisker fans tend to look for. Storm is priced around 10% below the 10-year old in Australia, which is probably the right level for it, but the 10 often dips under that when it's on special, so it would be my pick between the two in that scenario.

If you're wanting an actual intense Talisker, you'll be better served by the 57 North. Well, assuming you can't find last year's 8-year old Cask Strength special release, that is. Despite being considerably more expensive, if you're after more volume of flavour and intensity the 57N is the bottling to go for. And the higher strength (57%) justifies the price jump. Which reminds me, the recent announcement of Diageo's Special Releases for 2019 included a 15-year old cask strength Talisker, and although the details are yet to be shared, if the aforementioned 8-year old is anything to go by the 15 will not be one to miss. Exciting stuff!

Cheers!