Talisker Parley Wilder Seas Whisky Review!

Talisker "Parley Wilder Seas" is not to be confused with "Talisker x Parley" which was a 44-year old cask strength release that went for a rather insane $7,000 AUD. Instead this is a $145 AUD non-age statement Talisker bottled at a higher strength than their usual default, and it's been finished in cognac casks, which is a first for Talisker.

I've been lucky enough to try that 44-year old, and it is - perhaps unfortunately - delicious. Why are both of these Taliskers called "Parley", then? That would be down to the environmental group "Parley for the Oceans" that Talisker has partnered with, which is all about cleaning up, restoring, and protecting the world's oceans. The word "parley" was made famous by Pirates of the Caribbean as part of the - apparently real - pirate code, basically meaning to negotiate or discuss terms during a battle while under ceasefire. Parley for the Oceans has partnered with a few different brands in different projects, most notably Adidas which involved using recycled plastics collected from the oceans, and closer to home they're involved in the efforts to restore & protect The Great Barrier Reef. In Talisker's case the project is all about "rewilding" 100-million square kilometres of kelp (seaweed) forests - Diageo's contribution being £3 from every bottle of Talisker Parley Wilder Seas sold, plus awareness and "exposure" I suppose. £3 may not sound like a lot, and it isn't. There are 17,940 bottles in this Talisker release, so that's around £53,000 in total from the world's largest drinks company which reported £4.6-billion in profit last financial year. Is this just another green-washing, lip service, "look how environmental and cool our corporation is" marketing exercise then? Possibly, but the awareness and "exposure" is probably worth more to Parley for the Oceans than the dollar figure, and to be fair that's where the deal could've ended, so maybe we shouldn't complain too much. The environmental aspect does go a step further here since this particular Talisker bottling uses a 100% recycled glass bottle which was made using biofuel. The bottle and packaging does actually look great, significantly better than the redesigned packaging on the regular Talisker range if you ask me.

Talisker is the more famous of the malt whisky distilleries on the Isle of Skye, although it's now one of two since Torabhaig came online. Talisker is probably Diageo's biggest peated single malt brand, more so than Lagavulin as far as the casual whisky consumer is concerned, particularly if they don't like heavy peat. Talisker is medium-peated to around 20 ppm using mainland peat, with their malted barley coming from Diageo's Glen Ord Maltings plant near Inverness. The distillery makes plenty of noise about their coastal location affecting their flavour profile, but this is a contentious subject since most of their whisky is matured on the mainland at Diageo's centralised warehousing in Scotland's central belt. Many Taliskers do have a coastal flavour profile and a great salt & pepper character, particularly the venerable 10-year old and some of the cask strength Special Releases. Also the NAS 'Dark Storm', and the discontinued '57 North' if you can find it. Quick digression here - let's not forget that regardless of where the maturing casks are stored, these coastal distilleries are mashing/fermenting/brewing on site. In my amateur opinion this is another possible source for some of these coastal characters that is hardly ever talked about. What Talisker should make more noise about is their surprisingly traditional production methods, from wooden washbacks, to purifiers on the spirit stills, and most importantly worm tub condensers. Talisker is often left off people's lists when they're looking at this more traditional piece of equipment where the spirit vapours are condensed into liquid more slowly and with less copper contact compared to the modern shell & tube condensers. That's all in the name of a heavier and more textural spirit, in some cases quite sulphurous and 'meaty'. The cynics can say what they like about Diageo, but they certainly seem to value these more traditional production methods in many of their distilleries - and they don't try to fix what isn't broken like many other companies do. 

On to the whisky itself, then! This is a non-age statement medium-peated Talisker, nothing unusual there of course, and like their core range it's been dosed with e150 artificial colouring and is chill filtered. Strangely it's bottled at 48.6% ABV rather than their usual 45.8%, which is apparently only chosen as a historical throwback, being 80 degrees Imperial proof. So there should be a fair amount of flavour to play with here. Aside from that, the other main point of difference is the casks used. Parley Wilder Seas is finished in XO cognac casks, XO meaning "Extra Old" so a minimum of 10-years in oak - have a read here for more information. Specifying cognac casks means they must be French oak casks that have held double-distilled brandy from the Cognac region of France, but we don't know which brand or appellation, and we don't know how long that finishing period was. As far as I'm aware Diageo doesn't directly own a cognac brand, but they do have a 34% stake in LVMH which of course owns Hennessey that could well have been the source of these casks. We're seeing plenty of cognac casks used in Scotch whisky these days, and some in the wider world of whisky as well. In my experience the results can be fantastic, particularly with peated whisky. Here in Australia this release was exclusive to The Whisky Club subscription service, who received the entire country's allocation from Diageo just like they did with the Lagavulin Offerman releases. I'm not a member of this service, so the sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky geek. Let's see how it goes!

Talisker Parley Wilder Seas, NAS, 48.6%. Skye, Scotland.

Medium-peated, finished in XO ("Extra Old", minimum of 10-years in oak) French oak cognac casks. Chill filtered, artificially coloured. Bottled March 2023.

Colour: Amber. Maybe a little less neon orange glow than some Taliskers, but it's hard to say.

Nose: Quite Talisker-y, the cognac influence seems fairly subtle. Salted caramel sauce with extra sea salt flakes, and green chilli flakes. Salted butter, soft ashy peat smoke, and some oxidised (browning) red apples. Wood spices and a touch of dried orange peel around the edges. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Buttery & creamy, lightly smoky, and quite flat. Slight heat. 

Taste: More salted caramel sauce with extra salt flakes, more salted butter too. Warm green chilli flakes and a bit of metallic damp copper/brass. Red apple again, touch of sultana, and more wood spices. 

Finish: Short length. Sultanas & salted caramel continue, then turns quite earthy - think fresh soil. Green chilli flakes and a couple of pink peppercorns. Touch of bitter lemon to finish. 

Score: 2.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Despite the higher ABV and the extra cask treatment, unfortunately this Talisker still feels quite flat to my tastes. It's a contentious subject, but I'm putting this flatness down to chill filtration and added caramel colouring - possibly more so the latter. Both of these artificial processes are totally unnecessary in this Talisker. Why go with a higher ABV than usual, but then cancel that out by chill filtering it? This could've been a proudly naturally presented product, or at least stated to be non-chill filtered like the travel exclusive bottling Neist Point and some of the 8-15 year old Cask Strength special releases. I know it's a mass-marketed product and it's a large release, and the majority of that mass-market will naively gravitate towards darker whisky. But then why go with the higher ABV at all? My guess is they were trying to get the cognac influence to show through more, which is still quite subtle to my tastes. Aside from the fleeting appearances of some orange, sultana, and wood spice, it's hard to pick. That's not necessarily a negative by any means, a well-integrated cask finishing is usually something to be celebrated, having not stolen the show from the distillery character. However, I'd still be reaching for the standard 10-year old Talisker over this limited release. 

Short of some of the cask strength special releases and the sadly discontinued 57 North, if you ask me Talisker 10 remains the best example of what this distillery does best. It also hasn't inexplicably jumped in price like many of Diageo's core range / flagship bottlings - RIP Lagavulin 16. How they can justify that ridiculous jump in price with no change to the whisky whatsoever, is entirely beyond me. I'm voting with my wallet, and I hope you do the same. Talisker 10 is currently a whopping $80 AUD less than Lagavulin 16 here in Australia, despite being a higher ABV (45.8% over 43%). Easy decision there, folks...

Cheers!