Talisker 1974 Tactical The Old Malt Cask (Douglas Laing)

Single malt Talisker, an independent Douglas Laing bottling, a 26 year old release from 1974 and bottled at 44.7%. 294 bottles in all. Talisker, founded in 1830 by the MacAskill brothers by Loch Harport, beneath the Cuillin hills, is a Diageo Classic Malt. Its 10 year old was chosen as the Island malt of Diageo's Classic Malts series.

It was drawn off stills whose looped lyne arms and worm tubs build a rich, oily spirit, from peated malt, for a smoky, coastal spirit with a chilli kick. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, gentle American oak under the smoke. Beyond twenty years the smoke turns gentle, the malt oily and deep with dried fruit and soft pepper. Sea air works into the warehouses by Loch Harport, lending a saline thread. Carbost is a tiny port on the wild west coast of Skye. The peat is medium rather than heavy, leaving the smoke balanced and coastal. Talisker was for nearly two centuries the only working distillery on the Isle of Skye.

Bottled at 44.7%, it is rounded. A coastal peat smoke and a peppery lift ride over a gentle vanilla under the smoke. The mouthfeel is oily, the smoke carried on a peppery body. A long, briny finish ends on black pepper. This is Talisker's smoky, peppery Skye style.