Talisker 16 yo 1979 / 1995 Cadenhead 62.8% vs Talisker 13 yo 1979 James MacArthur’s 64.9%
Talisker 16 yo 1979 / 1995 Cadenhead 62.8%
Very few malts approach this sort of purity. This is as pristine and seagoing as it gets. A scalpel of cold salt, only begrudgingly revealing micro aromas of graphite oil, wintergreen and petitgrain essence, The seaweed flakes and waxed citrons remind you this is firstly about the sea then the peat. And the peat here is spartan and punctuated with glittering minerals, absolutely precise, and underlined with sharp stinging smoke. A perfect maritime microcosmos, and a style I adore. 92 pts
Talisker 13 yo 1979 James MacArthur’s 64.9%
Mini number 27 of 36, clearly there a lot more of the same juice under a different label elsewhere. Again, absolutely immaculate and glowing with crystalline power. We’re much in the same way with the clarity of vitrified seawater, the sharpness of its crushed rocks, the plaintive tang of its salty embrace, all converging and swirling golden in the glass. If anything this is even sharper, but then also narrower than the Cadenhead. Stylistically not a complex whisky, with only a hint of iodine and old earth. Maybe rubbed graphite paper, on which the most biting of lemons were zested. In terms of sense of being and place however this comes up tops. 92 pts
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