This has been a long awaited thing to happen. A new distillery on Skye!

A few years ago when they started building the Torabhaig Distillery, they more or less instantly killed Talisker’s marketing engine of being the only distillery on Skye, for almost 200 years.

Anyway, now there is a new one and from that new one there is the first official whisky. Bottled 46% and without much bells and whistles it was released two weeks ago. Of course it sold out instantly and every bit of bottles that was made available evaporated from shops quickly.

With a whisky coming from Skye you would expect it to be like Talisker, with some peat and lots of coastal notes. Let’s see where this one lands!

Sniff:
Lighthints of smoke and a bit of vanilla. Some moss and ferns, slightly earthy. Straw with a lot of coastal notes. Seaweed and brine and sand and marram grass.

Sip:
A slight note of cake batter. Some black pepper, earthy peat, a whiff of vanilla. Briny, but also sweet with sugary syrup.

Swallow:
Quite a finish with some sweetness and coastal salinity. Balck pepper and a hint of peat.

I really, really like this. Of course it doesn’t have the complexity of a ten year old, nor does it have the depth. But for a three year old whisky from a new distillery this is very good. It is typical for the Isle of Skye, in character. I guess that is a good thing on one hand, but on the other hand it might make them just a Talisker copy cat.

In the end, I think the regular Talisker 10 is better than this, but I do think they’re on to something and if they keep up the level of quality in years and decades to come, they’ve got a fan in me!

What I also like is that they use a slightly different bottle than everyone else. It does add a little bit to the drinking experience, if you ask me.

Of course, since it’s not available in shops for more than five minutes after being announced, people try to flip it for 200% of it’s value. Unless you’re a collector it’s not worth that.

87/100