Talisker 11 Year Old 2022 Special Release Whisky Review!

The one bottling in the 2022 Diageo Special Releases that immediately caught my eye. Why? Because it's a reasonably-priced, cask strength, ex-bourbon cask Talisker that is natural colour and non-chill filtered. Which is a winning formula! 

The packaging has stepped even further into the cartoon realm with these 2022 Special Releases, which as usual have arrived in Australia just under a year after their release in Europe. There are quite a few departures from the norm in this latest batch; adding virgin oak casks to the venerable Lagavulin 12-year old, adding a PX & Oloroso sherry finish to a 12-year old Clynelish with a hefty price tag, and releasing a 26-year old single grain whisky from Cameronbridge Distillery which retails for a very ambitious $599 AUD. What is not a departure from the norm perhaps is a very expensive non-age statement Mortlach release, this time featuring not only virgin oak casks but also two different varieties of sweet fortified wine cask, and retailing for $420 AUD. It's great that Diageo is giving Mortlach some well-deserved attention, but if I can speak for the whisky nerds of the world, all we want is a teenaged Oloroso sherry matured/finished Mortlach, with an age statement, that allows the distillery to live up to its legendary moniker of "The Beast of Dufftown". The 2023 Special Releases were recently unveiled in Britain, and thankfully both the packaging designs and the cask treatments have seemingly been dialled down. Despite the size of the company, Diageo certainly does seem to react to customer feedback, or even predict it! Besides all of that, these are still cask strength, non-chill filtered and natural colour releases from some of Diageo's most highly regarded distilleries, many of which are among Scotland's best. But I'm getting off topic here, we should be talking about Talisker! 

From the outset there were two bottlings in the 2022 releases that immediately appealed to me, not only because they're the cheapest / most reasonably priced of the bunch! These were the 10-year old Oban that was finished in Amontillado sherry casks, and the 11-year old Talisker that we're looking at here. We've been treated to some delicious Taliskers in the Special Releases over the last five years; starting with the fantastic 8-year old from 2018 that was matured in heavily-charred first-fill bourbon barrels, then a delicious 15-year old in 2019 that was matured in re-charred refill ex-bourbon barrels, followed by a slight departure in 2020 with an 8-year old rum cask finish, and then the 8-year old refill cask from 2021 that was taken from their "smokiest reserves". When the news first appeared about this 2022 bottling I was rather excited, partly since it was a little older at 11-years, but mainly because it was matured in bourbon casks. Specifically, the packaging states: "Lightly peated stocks from ex-bourbon casks". However, as is sometimes the case with Diageo's Special Releases, some of the press release blogs & also plenty of retailer websites seem to have gotten a little confused, and are stating that this whisky was matured in both ex-bourbon casks and ex-wine casks. Both the packaging and Diageo's official whisky site (malts.com) don't mention wine casks in relation to this Talisker, and to my palate there's no overt wine influence in the whisky itself. Furthermore, I can't see Diageo adding wine casks to a Talisker special release, which would be quite a big deal, and then neglecting to mention it on either the packaging or on their own website.

Being the whisky pedant that I am, I had to find out! So I reached out to Ewan Gunn, Diageo's Senior Global Brand Ambassador, to ask if he could confirm. Ewan was very helpful when I reached out to clear up the confusion that surrounded the brilliant 2019 12-year old Cragganmore special release, where many sources were wrongly stating that it was merely matured in ex-peated whisky casks, rather than the spirit itself being distilled from peated barley. Come to think of it there was a similar issue with the 15-year old Talisker released in the same year, which some had misinterpreted as being fully matured in virgin oak! That time Colin Dunn, Diageo's Whisky Brand Ambassador for Western Europe, came to the rescue and helped clarify that this was certainly not the case. This time Ewan has once again been extremely helpful, and even went so far as to contact the actual blender who signed off on the vatting for this release! Said blender confirmed that this 11-year old Talisker was matured solely in ex-bourbon casks, both first-fill and refill, and there was no wine involved.

Many whisky cynics like to think of Diageo as some faceless & soulless corporate monolith, and that its employees have all been enslaved towards the ultimate goal of global domination. In my experience that's really not the case, the staff that I've come across at the company's distilleries in Scotland have all been warm & welcoming, and passionate & professional. Now we have some pesky small-time whisky blogger in Brisbane, Australia, contacting Diageo's senior brand ambassadors in Britain and questioning details on whiskies from the previous year/s. Rather than being told to go away or being ignored completely, both of these gentlemen have promptly gone above & beyond to find the answer/s and set the record straight. Both Ewan and Colin deserve to be commended for their fantastic work that to my mind exemplifies what a brand ambassador should be. 

So, we have an 11-year old cask strength Talisker from the Isle of Skye. It has been fully matured only in ex-bourbon casks, both first-fill and refill, and bottled at 55.1% ABV without chill filtration or added colour. Retail pricing in Australia is around $190 AUD, which is very reasonable in this day & age. Summarising Talisker in twenty words or less; lightly peated, wooden washbacks, purifiers on spirit stills, worm tub condensers, sea salt & black pepper, coastal & delicious. Side note before we get to the review, you may have noticed that this 2022 release states that it's from "lightly peated stocks" while the 2021 8-year old stated "from our smokiest reserves". Talisker only makes one spirit which is peated to around 20 ppm, so these labels are referring to the flavour profile of the casks that were in the vatting/blend, rather than a different peating level in the spirit itself. Tasting time!

Talisker 11-Year Old, Special Releases 2022, 55.1%. Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Fully matured in ex-bourbon casks, both first-fill and refill (no wine casks involved). Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Fresh, fruity, and briny. Green olives in oily & salty brine, crumbly & sharp mature cheddar cheese, sweet vanilla fudge, and warm sandy beaches. Touch of tinned peaches & pineapple chunks in juice. Green chilli flakes (trademark Talisker), golden malted barley, sweet lemon zest, and dry & ashy wood smoke. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, spicy, smoky. Slight heat but it works. 

Taste: More tinned peaches & pineapple chunks in juice, and sweet lemon zest. Sweet vanilla fudge fades quickly into table salt, white pepper, and those green chilli flakes. Dry wood smoke with hot ash, and a touch of melted salted butter. 

Finish: Long length. Mild green chilli flakes and warm sand carry through, with the melted salted butter and olive brine following along. That ashy wood smoke is softer now, more of an undercurrent. Golden malted barley, tinned fruit, sweet lemon, and a flash of almond frangipane (almond pastry cream filling) to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. Just over the line maybe, but it's there.

Notes: An easier, lighter take on young cask strength Talisker. But there's no loss of distillery character, and the cask influence is kept nicely in check. That blender mentioned above has certainly done a good job with this one, if you ask me. It's possibly a little sweeter than expected, probably that lighter style showing through, but there are good doses of the trademark Talisker salt & pepper and that green chilli fruitiness that I love in the good examples of the make. It's still undeniably coastal as well, despite the widely lamented mainland maturation for the vast majority of Talisker spirit. Both Talisker and Caol Ila are great examples for the "terroir" and "there's no salt in whisky" arguments, with good talking points for both sides of the debate! 

Getting back to this 11-year old Special Release, it easily beats both the 2021 and 2020 8-year old releases if you ask me, and I'd put it on par with the 2019 15-year old. It's different in style to all of those of course, but quality-wise this 2022 release is a serious player. That said, it can't hope to square up against the 2018 8-year old, but there are few who can. That was almost a freak of nature, and it was released nearly 5-years ago now in a very different whisky world. It's still my favourite Talisker of all time (even over the cask strength 25-year old, but don't tell that bottle's owner) so it's not a fair comparison. That said, this 11-year old is probably the closest in style of all the subsequent Talisker Special Releases to date, and at ~$180 AUD here in 2023 it's holding up very well. Talisker fans will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.

Cheers!

Whisky in Isolation The Joy of Six Whisky Review!

An independent bottling of Australian single malt from one of our newest. High strength, natural presentation, relatively reasonable pricing, different and/or unusual cask treatments to the official bottlings, and highlighting lesser-known distilleries. Which should be independent bottling 101!

Like the name suggests and like many passion projects, Whisky In Isolation was born of the pandemic. Deep in the throes of lockdowns and isolation in early 2020, Melbourne-based proprietor Justin Farmer was inspired & encouraged by his wife to pursue his passion for whisky in earnest. That initially began with a blog under the Whisky in Isolation name, but soon blossomed into filling casks with spirit from various distilleries, experimenting with different finishes on maturing whisky, and playing around with vatting / blending casks of mature whiskies. The first Whisky In Isolation bottling titled "Nearly New York Sour" (in homage to the cocktail) was released in mid-2022, and there have been another three releases since. The subsequent releases have been sourced from VIC's Kinglake Distillery, Tasmania's Hobart Whisky / Devil's Distillery, and now Victoria's Chief's Son Distillery. Four releases in under 12-months is not a bad run for such a tiny operation, and the plan is to stick to similar volumes for the foreseeable future - meaning, all going well, there should be another three releases coming in the remainder of 2023. Justin has partnered with a number of small distilleries for future releases, both in Tasmania and on the Australian mainland, with a simple but effective goal in mind: "just great whisky". All bottlings to date have been around the same relatively reasonable price point, which has helped Justin gather quite the following in such a short period of time. 

This fourth release from Whisky In Isolation is from Chief's Son Distillery, a small operation located on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, around an hour's drive south-east of Melbourne. Chief's Son was founded by husband & wife team Stuart & Naomi McIntosh back in 2013, which practically makes them middle-aged in terms of the continuing (for now) boom in Australian distilleries. Chief's Son single malts are double distilled in a single copper pot still that is heated by an internal electric element, which is quite a common thing in Australian whisky production despite the extra manual labour that it involves. Stills don't come cheap, after all! Another common thing in Australian whisky production is the sourcing of wash from local breweries rather than brewing / fermenting on site, which is a cost-cutting, risk-reducing, and time-saving measure that would not be legally permitted if we were in Scotland. You could argue that doing this also helps with consistency, but my counter-argument is that that's a negative rather than a positive. You're effectively losing a large chunk of individuality and potentially personality in the finished product, particularly if multiple distilleries are using the same brewery and the same specifications. Even some of the biggest names in the industry take advantage of this method (some would say "loophole"), and Chief's Son are no exception. They do take it a step further though by specifying a number of different types of brewer's malts, or at least different specialty roasting levels, in their mash bills. These range from pale malt to crystal (think Benromach Cara Gold) and chocolate malt (think Glenmorangie Signet), while small amounts of peated malted barley are sourced from Scotland.  

The Whisky In Isolation bottling that we're looking at today is the oldest Chief's Son whisky bottled to date, at 6-years and 6-months of age. That may sound young on a global scale - probably because it is young on a global scale - but that's almost middle-aged by Australian whisky standards where many releases are only aged for the legal minimum of 2-years before they're pushed out the door. New expression The Joy of Six has been fully matured in small format first-fill French oak ex-apera fortified wine casks that were sourced from the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Apera is basically our take on a Spanish sherry, generally approximating an Oloroso style, although they tend to be lighter in style than you might expect from a traditional Oloroso sherry. Being first-fill and small format French oak casks though, I'm sure there's going to be plenty of both fortified influence and wood influence here. Small format casks in Australian whisky generally means 20-litre or 50-litre casks, or somewhere in between. These tiny casks combined with our warm and highly variable climate can wreak havoc on maturing spirit, particularly given the aggressive nature of French oak that is the most commonly used species in our industry - which is essentially dictated by the local table & fortified wine industries who have the first go at the casks before selling them on. The saving grace in this case is blending (a.k.a. vatting, still a single malt) these small casks of Chief's Son whisky together, playing around with the flavour profile, and also adjusting the ABV for the best results. In this case a few 20-litre casks were vatted together, and the ABV was reduced slightly to 54.25% because that's where Justin felt this whisky was at its best. It is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour, and retails here for $195 AUD in a 500ml bottle, with a tiny outturn of 105 bottles. As mentioned above, that's a perfectly reasonable price in Australia compared to much of the competition - both in independent and official bottlings - particularly at this age and ABV. 

For those familiar with Australian whisky, I know what you'll be thinking here, particularly if you've spied the colour below. "20-litre first-fill fortified wine casks for 6.5-years in Australia, so we're probably in for another overly sweet, overly wood-driven whisky, right?" Well I wouldn't be so hasty, since those specialty malts used at Chief's Son seem to balance out the impact of the fortified wine casks, and also because Justin has selected and vatted these particular casks for a reason. The bottle of The Joy of Six for this review was kindly donated by Justin, with no strings attached. So let's see how it goes, shall we? 

Whisky in Isolation "The Joy of Six", 6-years old, 54.25% ABV. Victoria, Australia.

Distilled at Chief's Son Distillery in Somerville, Victoria. Vatting of 2 x 20-litre first-fill ex-Apera (sherry style fortified wine) casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 105 bottles. 

Colour: Polished dark brown. 

Nose: Sweet, woody, toasty. Treacle, sultanas, sweetened ginger, and soft liquorice. Lightly burnt toast, bitter orange peel, and fresh Christmas pudding with the skin on. Even a flicker of marzipan and rich buttercream icing. Well-toasted oak, milky coffee with a dash of vanilla syrup, and soft leather. 

Texture: Medium weight. Syrupy in texture but less sweet than the nose, more toasty & roasty. Warming, no heat at all. 

Taste: More treacle, sweetened ginger, bitter orange peel, and toasted oak. Currants rather than sultanas here, and coffee froth/foam rather than syrup. That buttercream icing and soft old leather again, with some ginger toffee fudge. 

Finish: Medium length. Ginger again, spent coffee grounds, sweet toasted oak, and cinnamon. Ginger porter (dark ale) too. That soft old leather shows again, plus a little oily wood polish, and toffee fudge. Turning slightly astringent towards the end with tea leaves  - that'll be the tannins showing themselves, without going too far. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Not too far from a 4, in fact. 

Notes: Lovely complexity for a relatively young whisky that has been matured in small first-fill casks, which is a surprise. There are still shades of the Chief's Son official bottlings in places, but this independent certainly seems more rounded and more mature in comparison - which makes sense, since this is the oldest Chief's Son bottled to date. The sweetness and wood influence are both immediately obvious, but they're actually well balanced and measured, neither is allowed to steal the show. The tannins that we expect from small French oak casks don't show up until late in the finish, and they don't get into the full bitterness that many similarly-aged whiskies do. Which is a very good thing. Those ginger & fudgy notes are delicious as well. Makes for a great winter warmer!

This is still a very "Aussie" style whisky of course, in terms of sweetness and wood influence. But it's on the great quality end of the spectrum that isn't all about raw oak and using overly sweet fortified wine or other shenanigans to hide an undercooked whisky. Think modern Heartwood, Highwayman, Iniquity, Launceston, that sort of thing. Add the extremely competitive pricing at this age and ABV, and you're onto a winner. This is my first Whisky in Isolation bottling, and it's very impressive stuff. Already looking forward to the next one!

Thanks to Justin for the bottle for this review. It'll be thoroughly enjoyed and widely shared!

Cheers!

Longrow Red 15 Year Old Pinot Noir Whisky Review - Plus a Bonus!

The latest (in Australia) early-2022 release in the Longrow "Red" series of wine finished / matured heavily peated Springbank spirit, plus a bonus review of its close relative. The Longrow Open Day 2020 special release!

I have a complicated relationship with the Longrow 'Red' series of red wine cask bottlings. I'd almost go as far as calling them hit & miss, at least for my tastes. So far my picks of the series have been the 10-year old refill Malbec finish from late 2020 and the 11-year old refill Pinot Noir finish from early 2019, although I'm yet to try the 11-year old first-fill Port Cask matured from 2014 or the brand-new Tawny Port bottling that was recently released in Europe. As you can guess from those two winners, most of the first-fill wine cask finishes in the Longrow Red series have left me cold, ranging from decent, to good, but not great. So I'm clearly preferring the refill casks with less wine influence and more of the distillery character on display, and getting outside of the Red series, the 14-year old Sherry Cask (yes, that was all refill casks!) and this incredible refill port cask from Cadenhead's have definitely reinforced that preference. I'm still wishing they'd give us a cask strength ex-bourbon matured Longrow aged in the early teens, which as far as I'm aware doesn't exist outside of the Springbank Society releases or some market-exclusive single casks. Whether all refill or a mix of first-fill and refill casks, I suspect such a thing would be outstanding. But strangely ex-bourbon seems to be the least-common cask type for this heavily peated Campbeltowner, excluding the 46% ABV core range bottling anyway. Even a cask strength version of that "entry level" NAS Longrow would satisfy my curiosity, but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon since there isn't enough out there as it is. Springbank can't keep up with the demand for even their core range bottlings of their three brands, and it's important to remember that the heavily peated Longrow and unpeated Hazelburn brands each account for only 10% of the distillery's annual production. 

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Longrow might be heavily peated by Springbank standards, but this is not an Islay whisky. If you were to only look at everyone's favourite phenolic figures, at 55-60 ppm Longrow does sit comfortably on the higher end of the scale. But if you go in expecting something as smoky and/or peaty as a Laphroaig or an Ardbeg, there's a good chance you're going to be disappointed. This is a heavy, sulphurous, funky spirit by design, being double distilled through Springbank's direct-fired wash still and then the worm tub condenser-equipped first spirit still. The spirit cut points for Longrow are also quite wide and quite late (69-58% for us geeks), giving it a divisive profile. And the peat itself is sourced from the Scottish mainland, generally from the east coast. The same mainland peat is used for the Springbank malt and also the majority of the malt used at sister distillery Glengyle (producing Kilkerran whisky). Speaking of which, the same peated caveats apply to Kilkerran's Heavily Peated range, which also uses mainland peat - don't expect an Islay experience there either! Despite the numbers Longrow's peat character is more of a dirty, earthy, softly smoky style, closer to an Ardmore than an Ardbeg, but in a heavier, dirtier style that is really quite unique. 

Getting back to the task at hand, this Longrow Red 15-year old is the early-2022 release, the latest to make it to Australia. An 11-year old Tawny Port bottling has since been released in Europe, bottled in late 2022, which I assume (no guarantee) will make it to Australia later this year. This early-2022 release was matured for 11-years in ex-bourbon barrels before being finished for 4-years in fresh (Springbank-ese for first fill) pinot noir casks sourced from Valli Vineyards in central Otago, New Zealand, which is roughly in the centre of the South Island's lower half - not far from Cardrona, as it happens. This is the third Longrow Red to date that has been finished in pinot noir casks; the first was a 12-year old released in 2015 which had a one year finish in first-fill NZ pinot noir casks, and the second was the aforementioned 2019 11-year old which had a 3-year finish in refill NZ pinot noir casks - sourced from the same vineyard as this 15-year old 2022 release, in fact. As usual this Longrow Red was bottled at cask strength, 51.4% ABV, without chill filtration or added colouring, with 9,400 bottles released. Retail pricing here in Australia was $270-300, and inevitably many will have been flipped for profit (by both retailers and retail customers) in short order. Let's see how it goes!

Longrow Red 15-Year Old Pinot Noir Cask, early 2022, 51.4%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Matured for 11-years in ex-bourbon, finished for 4-years in first-fill ex-NZ pinot noir red wine casks. 9,400 bottles released Feb 2022. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Fruity, earthy, rich & sweet. Buttery toasted oak, stewed plums & black cherries, dried apricot. Brown sugar butter caramel, and wine tannins (red grape skins and cold black tea). Old leather, and gravy powder. Touches of spearmint & white pepper around the edges. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, buttery, fruity. No heat. 

Taste: More buttery toasted oak, leather, grape skins & cold black tea (tannins). Touches of white pepper & gravy powder. Stewed stone fruit & dried apricot again but some berries here too, blackberry & blueberry jam. Touch of dark chocolate too, but the wine is doing the heavy lifting here.

Finish: Short-medium length. More cold black tea, buttery caramelised oak, leather & stewed berries & cherries. Earthy peat & dirty smoke coming through towards the end. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: An enjoyable Longrow Red, sweeter & fresher than I generally find these releases. Too winey for my tastes though, and the funk is very restrained - barely there at all, in fact, and the trademark earthy peat & dirty smoke don't show up until very late in the third act. So red wine lovers will probably enjoy this one if they aren't fans of Longrow's dirty, sulphury side. But anyone can make a red wine-forward whisky, while only one distillery can make Longrow. Quite a bit of fresh oak influence in this 15-year old too, which seems to push the sweetness up. Like many of these Longrow Red bottlings, I think there's too much wine and too much cask, and not enough distillery character. We need more refill casks in this series please Springbank! How about some ex-bourbon cask Longrow releases too, while you're at it? Lose the "Red" part of the equation and give us the ex-bourbon maturation without the wine finishes. To quote the disco era; "we want the funk". To paraphrase another; "won't you take us to funky town?". 

And now, the bonus round! 

The Open Day 2020 Longrow bottling is a vatting of two first-fill Pinot Noir casks and two refill Malbec casks, all fully matured and aged for 10-years. Springbank's Open Day bottlings are released for the annual Campbeltown Festival, so they're the equivalent of a Feis Ile bottling. There's usually a Springbank, a Longrow and a Hazelburn, plus a Kilkerran from sister distillery Glengyle, and they're generally a small batch of 3-6 casks sold only from the distillery shop. Thanks to the pandemic though the 2020 Campbeltown Festival had to turn virtual, and it didn't take place at all in 2021, while things have since returned to physical normality in '22. That virtual festival in 2020 meant that the Open Day bottlings were more widely available than usual, and could be purchased directly from the distillery's website for shipping within Europe. I was able to get a bottle on the secondary market which wasn't cheap, but it was more reasonable than some of the more "sexy" bottlings from the same distillery that are still attracting ludicrous pricing on the same websites. Longrow Open Day 2020 was fully matured in 2 x first-fill Pinot Noir red wine casks and 2 x refill Malbec red wine casks, all at least ten years old, with the four casks yielding 1,284 bottles at a cask strength of 53.7% ABV. Malbec is the heavier of these two wine varieties with more tannins, with pinot noir being on the lighter side in comparison. So I'm already thankful that those Malbec casks were refill. Tasting time!

Longrow Open Day 2020, 10-years old, 53.7%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Vatting of 2 x first-fill pinot noir wine casks and 2 x refill malbec wine casks, bottled for Springbank 'Virtual Open Day' 2020. 1,284 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Rich, thick & meaty. Loads of dark chocolate & dried raspberry. Blueberry & sour black cherry. Touch of spearmint around the edges, a little powdered ginger there too. Boysenberry ripple ice cream, but light on the vanilla. Earthy peat, roast meat drippings (pork?) & gravy powder, soft wine tannins. Rich toffee fudge & black pepper. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, earthy, meaty & fatty. No heat at all. 

Taste: Lightly smoky, earthy & meaty. More dark chocolate, rich toffee fudge, sour black cherry, and dried raspberry. Powdered ginger & spearmint around the edges again, plus a pinch of black pepper. Creamy boysenberry ripple ice cream again. Touch of coffee grounds in the background.  

Finish: Long length. More meaty roast meat drippings & gravy powder, and earthy, dirty peat. Slight touch of dried orange. Rich chocolate, turning creamy & lactic. Soft grape tannins again, and more blueberry. Creamy chocolate to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: A deliciously earthy, meaty, Longrow that sits almost entirely on the savoury spectrum - more of these please! The wine influence is still obvious of course, but it's less dominant / overbearing than it is in some / most of the regular "Red" bottlings, including the one above. The trademark Longrow earthy peat & dirty smoke signature is very much in the background, or rather it's very well integrated, and the dirty Campbeltown "funk" diesel notes that we all love are still quite soft in this one. But it's no less delicious as a result. I'd rank it slightly above my favourite of the Longrow Red bottlings to date, the 11-year old refill Pinot Noir finish from 2019. It's not really a direct comparison though because this Open Day bottling isn't part of the Red series. Those releases tend to be finished in one particular type of wine cask, while this Open Day bottling was fully matured in two different types of wine cask, and crucially they were a mix of both first-fill and refill. Which has certainly helped retain the distillery character without going over the top with the wine influence. Good stuff!

Cheers!