Appearance: Full gold.
Nose: At first restrained yet spicy, with a hint of struck matches; fresh-clean and growing in complexity like a gathering storm to reveal a honeyed sweet maltiness with ripe red berry fruit. Eventually a little well integrated mellow smoke drifts across the scene as a wild sea turns up briny, fresh clean notes, and an oily explosion of pepper.
Body: Medium.
Palate: At first sweetly mellow and rich in the mouth then quickly very spicy and increasingly stormy as the Talisker heat comes through. It’s as if the pure, tongue-coating sweetness joins hands with a deep nutty smokiness to embrace those spicier notes. The flavour is elegantly drawn out with a good balance between sweetness, smoke and salt, which is all the more evident when a little water is added.
Finish: Clean and of medium length, warming, with a lasting, smooth aftertaste, in which late peaty burnt embers can be found.