Talisker 10 Year Old

I've tasted and drunk a lot of Talisker over the years, including a lot of Talisker 10 yo. The first 8 or 9 times I tasted Talisker 10 yo it might as well have been 8 or 9 different whiskies I was tasting, how different they were from one another. I did a previous review of Talisker 10 yo from my first full bottle of it, which, I would say, was the greatest outlier of all of the Talisker 10s I have tasted. That bottle tasted of absolutely nothing except salt and pepper, UNTIL the bottle was opened for 7 months, at which point honey blossomed and for the very first time I understood why other people liked Talisker 10 yo. I am reviewing this sample, compliments of @Jonathan in 2014, because now, after all of these years of drinking Talisker 10, 18, 25, DE, and 57 Degrees North, I have a sample of Talisker 10 which I believe is what so many other people assume all Talisker 10 tastes like, because they have been lucky enough to get bottles from good batches only

Nose: deep, rich, and broad delicious malt with plenty of peat, smoke, and pepper brine perfectly integrated with the faintest trace of honey-style sweetness. Fabulous. Score: 24.5/25

Taste: lovely peaty briny mouthful, a very good translation from the nose. There isn't much sweet balance here, but there is enough. Very nice. Score: 22.5/25

Finish: long strong finish which just slowly fades down. Delicious. Score: 22/25

Balance: very good balance in all sequential tasting stages. Score: 22/25

Water added: 1) brought out sweetness and malt in the nose, and 2) bundled the flavours in the mouth

Total Sequential Score: 91 points

Strength: very strong. Score: 24/25

Quality: all of the flavours are of very high quality. Score: 23.5/25

Variety: lots of contrast and variety. Score: 22.5/25

Harmony: very good harmony in all phases. Score: 22.5/25

Total Non-Sequential Score: 92.5 points

Comment: this particular bottle of Talisker 10 yo is in the same excellent league with Talisker 57 Degrees North, which is my go-to Talisker. When people rave about Talisker 10 I now assume that they have been drinking from bottles like this one, and not from the other 8 or 9 I have sampled previously to having tried this sample. It took me about 10 tries to get one like this one

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