Talisker distillery is an island single malt Scotch whisky

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

based in Carbost,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

on the

Minginish Minginish () is a peninsula on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is situated on the west coast of the island and runs from Loch Scavaig in the south (which separates Minginish from the Strathaird Peninsula), along the western coast of Skye to Lo ...

Peninsula on the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...

. The distillery is operated by

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

and Taliskers’ 10 year old whisky has been nominated as part of their '' Classic Malts'' series. Whiskies attributed to the Talisker brand have been praised by whisky commentators such as Jim Murray. In 1830 Hugh MacAskill leased the site from the MacLeods, having raised £3,000 and built the distillery. He chose to name it after his estate, Talisker (some 5 miles west), rather than the village in which it was located.

History

After a number of false starts, the distillery was founded in 1830 by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill. It opened at Carbost in 1831 after they acquired the lease of Talisker House from

Clan MacLeod Clan MacLeod ( ; ) is a Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the MacLeods of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Harris and Dunvegan, known in Gaelic as ' ("seed of Tormod") an ...

. In 1879, it was purchased for £1,810 () by a firm which became known as R. Kemp & Co. when it had a production capacity of 700 gallons per week. The principal partner was A.G. Allan, Procurator-Fiscal for Elginshire. The other partner was Roderick Kemp, wine merchant of Elgin. The distillery was rebuilt 1880–87 and extended in 1900. A new lease for the distillery was negotiated in 1892 with the chief of Clan MacLeod for an annual payment of £23.12s () and a ten-gallon cask of best-quality Talisker. By 1894 the output was up to 2,000 gallons per week. In 1895 the business was converted into a limited liability company with Thomas Mackenzie as managing partner, but the shares were not offered to the public. Talisker was acquired by the Distillers Company in 1925. On 12 August 1948 a fire broke out in the store of the distillery. No whisky was destroyed, but grain in store and over 100 empty barrels were lost. The distillery was rebuilt again in 1960 after a stillhouse fire completely destroyed the distillery. The distillery operates five

still A still is an apparatus used to distillation, distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively Boiling, boil and then cooling to Condensation, condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic Distillation#Laboratory_procedures, ...

s; two wash stills and three spirit stills. All the stills use worm tubs (condensing coils) rather than a modern condenser, which are believed to give the whisky a "fuller" flavour (itself an indication of higher sugar content). During this early period, the whisky was produced using a triple

distill Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separation process, separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective ...

ing method, but changed to the more conventional double distilling in 1928. After the 1960 fire, five exact replicas of the original stills were constructed to preserve the original Talisker flavour. In 1972 the stills were converted to steam heating and the maltings floor was demolished. DLC was renamed as United Distillers in 1987. In 1998 United Distillers was merged with International Distillers & Vintners to create United Distillers & Vintners, forming the spirits division of

plc.

Production

Talisker's water comes from springs directly above the distillery via a network of pipes and wells. The malted barley used in production comes from Muir of Ord. Talisker has an unusual feature—swan neck lye pipes. A loop in the pipes takes the vapour from the stills to the worm tubs, which causes some of the alcohol to condense before it reaches the cooler. It then runs back into the stills and is distilled again. Talisker now has an annual output of three and a half million litres of spirit. The spirit is most frequently matured in American oak casks. The

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

is peated to a

phenol Phenol (also known as carbolic acid, phenolic acid, or benzenol) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile and can catch fire. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () ...

level of approximately 18–22 parts per million (ppm), which is a medium peating level. Additionally, the water used for production, from Cnoc nan Speireag (Hawk Hill), flows over peat which adds additional complexity to the whisky. The distillery began producing special bottlings of the whisky for connoisseurs in the early 2000s, with a 20- and 25-year bottling (where previously only a 10-year and 18-year were available). The 25-year bottling, despite being more expensive than the 20-year bottling, was distributed more widely. In 2007 Talisker 18-year-old won "Best Single Malt In The World 2007" at the World Whiskies Awards. and in 2015 Talisker 10 Year Old won a Double Gold Medal and "Best Single Malt Scotch up to 12 years" in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Talisker was the favourite whisky of writers

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

and HV Morton. In his poem "The Scotsman's Return From Abroad", Stevenson mentioned "The king o' drinks, as I conceive it, Talisker,

Islay Islay ( ; , ) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll and Bute just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's cap ...

, or Glenlivet."

Bottlings

* Talisker 10 Year Old * Talisker Skye * Talisker Storm * Talisker Dark Storm * Talisker 18 year Old (limited annual run) * Talisker 25 year Old (limited annual run) * Talisker 30 year Old (limited annual run) * Talisker Distiller's edition * Talisker 57° North * Talisker Port Ruighe * Talisker Neist Point * Talisker 8 Year Old Cask Strength (periodic release) * Talisker Wilder Seas (limited edition in cooperation with

parley for the oceans Parley for the Oceans is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on protection of the oceans. It was founded in 2012 by Cyrill Gutsch. Background Before founding Parley for the Oceans, Cyrill Gutsch worked as ...

) * Talisker The Wild Explorador (limited diageo special release 2023)

Reviews and accolades

Talisker whiskies have generally performed very well at international

Spirit ratings With a growing number of offerings, such as those produced by an increasing number of microdistilleries, various mechanisms have arisen to provide reviews and opinions of individual varieties of spirits. These events generally use expert panels ...

competitions and have won some acclaim from liquor review organizations. The 10-, 18-, 25- and 30-year Taliskers have been awarded mostly gold medals from the

San Francisco World Spirits Competition The San Francisco World Spirits Competition was founded in 2001 by Anthony Dias Blue as an off-shoot of the San Francisco International Wine Competition. It assesses hundreds of entrants annually (1,407 in 2013 from 63 countries) with tastings i ...

. The 10- and 18-year varieties, meanwhile, have received scores of 85-89 and 90-95 from Wine Enthusiast. Spirits ratings aggregator proof66.com, which averages scores from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Wine Enthusiast, and others, classifies Talisker's 10-year scotch in its highest ("Tier 1") performance category. Talisker Distiller's Edition won Best Islands Single Malt at the 2013 World Whiskies Awards.

References

General * * * *
Talisker@WhiskypediaCE 6.0 - why the codename "Yamazaki" ?
Mike Hall, Microsoft Development Network, 20 Sep 2006.

External links