Talisker Surge (NAS, Travel Exclusive)

 

It's a strange world when Talisker releases a bottle named identically to a defunct neon green 1990's soda (Coke's answer to Pepsi's Mountain Dew, if you weren't there and were curious). Although Talisker (aka Diageo's marketing department) love to brand themselves with stormy/rocky imagery (Talisker Storm ... Talisker Dark Storm ... etc), this one might have benefitted from a few extra rounds through QC. Still, it's a Travel Exclusive Talisker bottle and I'm pretty curious. 

I haven't had Talisker 10 Year in a while, since the last bottle I had seemed to have lost a little bit of the magic. But at various whisky events over the last year or so, I've been hearing that the brand is back in the saddle and things are OK. 

Airport whisky, meanwhile, is such an odd thing. At the airport in Bangkok there are tons of Ballantine's Blended bottles, all the way up to 30 years ... a variety of totally normal, pedestrian bottles you can get at any DC liquor store (Ardbeg Smoketrails, Glenlivet 12/14/16, Aberfeldy 12, etc etc), a slew of intriguing Indian and Japanese whiskies... and a handful of bottles labeled Travel Exclusive. 

This Talisker Surge is one of the latter. I figured, obviously, why get something for slightly cleaper when I could get something I can't obtain elsewhere? 

This is bottled at 45.8%, no age statement, from first fill ex-bourbon. Let's see about Surge:

Nose: An interesting mix of classical Talisker notes (slate, salt, light peat, sand, field herbs, soft smoke) with some brighter notes. I'm getting juniper, cream soda, strawberry, peaches, and pine needles. On the neck pour, I definitely got brief whiffs of gasoline/petrol as well (!). 

Mouthfeel: Oily, but thin also. 

Palate: Nice muscular palate - zesty pepper, shrimp, apple, salt, stone, peat, more smoke than expected, ginger root, hot peppers, and a residual sweetness that is hard to identify... almost like freshly cut grass. Tastes bright, brash, brawny, and young. 

Finish: Pepper, smoke, peat, juniper/pine. Very long finish, to its credit. 

Verdict: Not a bad Talisker, but perhaps $30 too expensive for what it brings to the table. It's somewhere between the standard 10 year and the NAS Storm in terms of complexity and raw flavor. Talisker fans will certainly like this, but for $100 in an airport... you probably have better options.