Talisker 2011 8 Year Old Rum Finish Special Releases 2020

Billy Abbott, The Whisky Exchange

• Nose

  Sweet and smoky with bananas, butterscotch, sea-spray and black pepper. Candied orange and lemon appear, surrounded by a cloud of sweet and salty peat smoke. More sweet fruit notes develop: overripe, roasted and grilled pineapple.

• Palate

  Rich, rounded and sweet. A big hit of pungent peat smoke is tempered by baked apples and toasted bananas, all dusted with freshly cracked black pepper and Maldon salt. A pinch of chilli heat is swamped by sweet and sour citrus: lemon, lime and Seville orange.

• Finish

  A hit of plimsoll rubber and tar leads to singed apples and liquorice sticks.

• Comment

  The rum works rather well, but it’s the nose where it has the biggest impact – is it Jamaican funk you can smell or damp, maritime Talisker? The palate is much more typical, but intense, sweet and fruity, with the ‘Made by the Sea’ tagline dialled up a notch. I think this might be the hit of the series…