Talisker 20, 1981 (UK) Tasting Notes and Ratings.

Talisker 20, 1981 (UK)

Added on Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008 at 10:51 PM

Bottler:

Age:	20 yrs	Type:	Scotch
Vintage:	1981	Subtype:	Single Malt
ABV:	62.00 %	Region:	Highland
Price:	N/A	Availability:	Collectors Only

Original price was around £130.

Member Ratings and Notes

Chris

N: Rich woods and spice cake, cinnamon sticks...
P: Huge and delicious, the peat and sherry have merged to create a truly unique flavor, cakey, some grassy notes, just a rockstar of a whisky, hands down...
F: Peat and smoke in waves with mint and green herbs.
More, more, more, more, more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adam

Fantastic. Not for novices.

Andy

Fantastic oak and mulling spices (especially cinnamon). The top of an apple pie, liquefied.

Mike

Wow. Nose is cinnamon rolls with cream cheese. Seriously. Where'd that come from? Smoke. Grilled asparagus. Eggs in butter on a hot skillet. Palate -- explosion! Huge sweetness and spice. Raisins, sugar coated dates. Finish is hot. Spicy jalapeños. Red pepper. This is the most explosive whisky I have tasted. Close to an A+.

D.J.

Does everything perfectly. Simply delicious.

Dave

This might be a case of listening to too much hype for me. Heard all the ravings and all the excitement and "must try it"s for weeks/months before my taste of this. I poured a nice size glass - maybe 3/4 ounce and let it sit for 10 minutes. Bottle was pretty low - down to about 15%. Any way, what I tasted was slightly under what I was told repeatedly that it would be.

My first nose impression was of burnt match-sticks just as you blow out the buring wood. A sulphury peaty moldy goodness that slapped me harder than I expected. Then it calmed down a bit and the wood spices started to shine on cinnamon and apple-pie spice. Some remanants of the malt was there but it was so far in the background I would not say to look for it.

The Palate had everything that makes a Talisker so special and then all of the burnt wood sulphur that the nose expressed. At first I thought there might be something wrong with the bottle....then I thought maybe I had too many already....then I realized that this was simply that different .... and in a very good way. The finish was medium long and the burnt wood stayed with me until the next sample that night.

I would say this was very good and I can see why it gets the A's and maybe even a few A+'s but for me it was just a bit too different. Not something I would like to drink on a regular basis but I would certainly want to own a bottle....if I could still find one.

Outstanding, perfectly balanced, among the very best whiskies I've tasted.

Sku

Okay, I'm going to be the odd man out here and say that while I enjoyed this whisky, it didn't bowl me over the way it did my colleagues. The nose is sherry and mulling spices. The palate is sherry with wisps of smoke and sulphur, but there is also a thinness to it as well as a one-dimensional quality. The finish brings out a sweeter wine note, perhaps port, with some smoke. A good malt, no doubt, but just it didn't affect me the way it did others.

Rob

Powerful, potent, smooth, a bit of fruit yet strong.

Fuji

A great peated sherried whisky

Blind retaste:

N: Spicy sherry notes with stewed fruits, smoke and leather

P: Delicious, much of the notes on the nose is on the palate with a bit of tobacco

F: Slightly citrus smokey finish that sticks

This is sweeter than the US release. The nose advertised what you were gonna get on the palate. Sherry and peat, a great combitnation. A-/A

Ries

n: Pungent, balsamic reduction, burnt salt, red fruit on the stove.

t: Balanced and nice with a sherry note. Smoke, salt, leather, and wood. Oatmeal character with dried cherry, pleasant.

Talisker "Skye Flight Night" (Feb 12, 2012 Partio) [A-/A]

Dan

Beautiful bronze/amber color. Sweet and balanced, with peat, rubber, smoke, ham and spice on the nose. Smooth and smokey in my mouth with a very rich flavor including more smoke and peat. Some sulfur too. Unbelievably balanced. One of the best of all time. A/ Borderline A+ [3/25/11]

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