Talisker Dark Storm – from the eye of Skye

At the first, you don’t hear a thing. The wind calms, birds stop their chore and tweets go silent. The dark cloud approaches fast. The wind wakes up first, gathering speed and strength and feeling proud when traveling in front of the storm. The rain, the thunder and it’s bright flashes fill ears and eyes. The storm has arrived.

Talisker put out their first Storm (in Finnish) earlier this year. It was a delightful experience that made one enjoy the whipping pain of rain on bare face. Now they re-entered the theme with their Dark Storm. It is Talisker, from the Isle of Skye, matured in “selected heavily charred casks”. They also state, that this maturation should give it extra spice and smoke.
The color is very pleasant and something you’d expect to see when looking at whisky. Oils are thicker than I thought they’d be. After all, this isn’t very specially old or strong (45.8%, the usual Talisker) dram. They don’t give out any age for this one, but it’s probably around 10-12YO mostly.
The nose is opening up slowly. At first, it doesn’t give out any surprises – except that it is very afraid and staying at the back corner. Then, when you beg for it, it will produce out a healthy buff of smoke. Much more smokier than any Talisker usually. But I am still very surprised, how delicate the nose it.


Mouthful gives out at first a smooth, then a bit late biting, smoke. Spiciness and smokiness are very much present here. Variety of tastes travel on my mouth, a bit of chocolate is recognizable but what I like the most is the smoke and the feeling that you are licking a deep-charred wood. There are, luckily I might add – or otherwise I can drop off enjoying whisky and start spending my evenings by an dampened fire – other tastes that fulfill this dram. But it is not too complex. Neither it is a very attacking one either. It is a enchanting dragon with a sweet tongue and smoke buffing out of it’s nostrils. For some reasons, known only to ancient legends, it is holding it’s killing bite back and giving us a very nice expressions of itself. Like a tamed beast.
Despite being a very smoky whisky, it is easy to enjoy and drink. Clearly made to please lots of people and to accommodate today’s worlds endless hunger of Scottish drams, especially smoky ones. This one is really competing with Islay magic!