Single Malt Savings- Talisker 10yr

Photo by Konstantin Ponomarenko

We are beginning to head into the Christmas shopping season, and this means but one thing for booze fans: all the supermarkets are vying for your hard earned pounds. One of the great benefits of this is the fantastic deals that are going to be coming over the next month and a half or so. The first to catch my attention so far this month is that from Tesco, who are offering Talisker 10yr down from £33 to £25 until 3rd December, a stonkingly good price and well worth getting in on.

Talisker is distilled on the Isle of Skye, the only single malt to be made there. This is a major selling point for Talisker who play up on the location aspect with pictures of crashing waves on the box and even the longitude and latitude of the distillery being featured on the bottle. This whisky's packaging is very classic though, all blue script with maps of Skye and so on.

As well as all this, another great selling point is that the 10yr is bottled at 45.8%, the extra strength of which should help retain some of the concentration of flavour and improve the quality.

On the nose the first thing to come through is a salty, phrenolic quality. This is most certainly a peaty whisky, but it doesn't play up the smoke as much as many of the Islay whiskies. There are further notes of sea spray, seaweed, throat sweets, honey and fruit coming through too.

On the palate this is a surprisingly sweet whisky that turns spicy and dry fairly quickly. Pepper dominates the palate to begin with, with smoke and wood playing a major part. Dried fruits come through as well, and after adding water this huge explosion of a whisky calms down a little, allowing some lighter fruit and honey notes to get in on the party as well.

Talisker have made big of the fact that this whisky is "made by the sea" and thankfully they do come through on this promise. The whisky gives everything you would hope for and more, with the 10yr being huge on the palate, and a true winter warmer. Amazing at the price.

Pick yourself/friend/family member up a bottle of this classic malt from Tesco for £25 until 3rd December - perfect for earlybird Christmas shoppers.