Talisker 11yo - 2022 Special Release
Official Annual Special Release | 55.1% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
After over-priced nonsense, is it now embarrassingly too cheap?
Diageo’s Deep Discounting
Noticed any deeply-discounted Diageo brands recently? We have.
A few weeks ago, I happened to wander into my local off-license to grab a couple of beers. As I mentioned in a previous review, I enjoy the occasional craft beer and I also have something of a penchant for those richly flavoured Belgian beers that come in at 8%+ ABV, but somehow – dangerously - manage to taste like they might only be four or five per cent.
During the summer months I tend to drink more beer and less whisky, but recently it’s been scorching in the UK and I’ve been enjoying the occasional hazy IPA. Luckily, the off-license around the corner from where I live is well stocked. During the lockdown of 2020, they started buying-in craft beers and since then, they’ve really established themselves as something of a specialist retailer. I’m not exaggerating when I say that they probably have 150+ craft beers in stock, and perhaps a choice of fifty or so Belgian beers. Of course, the craft beers are all those hazy, fruity pale beers that cost about seven quid a can, but hey ho, I still buy them, sucker as I am for a fancy label and a new flavour.
What this place isn’t, however, is a whisky specialist. When it comes to beer, they’ve got it nailed on, but with single malts, that’s never been the case. That said, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that they’ve started to curate a not-too-shoddy collection of malts. They probably have about fifty whiskies behind the counter now, although between the ubiquitous bourbon and the usual Dalwhinnie, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet, there’s still not that much to tempt me.
Of all the bottles that they do have, the most interesting are perhaps a selection of Diageo Special Releases, all from 2022. They’ve got the whole collection in there, and every time I venture into the place, I’m always tempted to take a punt on a bottle. I never seem to buy a Diageo Special Release from the bigger, well-known online retailers. I think because a) as a range they’re way overpriced, and b) there are hundreds and hundreds of more affordable and more appealing bottles that those two retailers have in stock to distract me.
However, if I’m in my regular off-license picking up a couple of hazy pale ales, and suddenly my eye alights on say, a cask strength Lagavulin at 57.3%, then I do feel a slight twitch in the wallet. The problem is that Lagavulin costs £135 a bottle. And I wasn’t born yesterday. I know for a fact that it could never live up to its price tag, so typically, I’ll pay for my beers and walk away. Until the other day that is.
On that particular visit, I noticed something: the Diageo Special Releases in my local off-license had all been discounted. Now, when I say that they’d been discounted, I don’t mean that they were particularly affordable, but one bottle in particular – the Talisker 11yo – jumped out. It had been reduced from £110 to £90, which to my mind is still £20 more expensive than it should really be, but even so, I found myself standing there wavering as the guy rang my beers through the till.
The main reason I was tempted was because I haven’t really connected with Talisker in about a decade. It was once one of my favourite distilleries but the last time I had the 10yo, I felt it was rough - a pale version of its former self. There was also an 8yo Talisker released as part of the Special Releases series back in 2018, which by all accounts was an absolute banger, but which I missed out on.
On this basis I began to talk myself into buying the 2022 release. It would be nice, I thought, to connect with Talisker again. And a cask strength Talisker with an age statement is surely a solid proposition, even at £90. In the end, though, I didn’t buy it.
After watching Diageo’s shame-faced profiteering over the last few years, I found myself reluctant to reward them with my money and so I walked out of the shop sans whisky, determined to enjoy my craft beers and forget about it. The problem is that, say what you like about Diageo, this is Talisker - and I couldn’t forget about it.
That night, I found myself tossing and turning like a little boat in a windswept Portree Harbour, as I thought about whether or not I could justify spending £90 on that bottle. The internet told me that it was decent - the general consensus seemed to be that it was the best of that year’s Special Releases - but I still wasn’t convinced. After all, a whisky enthusiast telling you that an expression is the best of that year’s Diageo Special Releases is hardly high praise, when you consider that some of these whisky enthusiasts view Diageo’s Special Releases as overpriced, premiumised dross.
I needed to know that it was really good in order to part with £90 and betray my principles. So, I decided to reach out to the Dramface writer’s Whatsapp group chat, and see if anybody on there had tried it.
In hindsight, I’m glad I did. The WhatsApp group pointed me to Amazon, where the very same bottle that had been discounted to £90 in my local off-license, was on offer for a mere £52. That’s a whopping 50% discount.
So… Diageo, a shareholder-driven behemoth that wants to rinse every last penny from its once loyal customer base through the systematic pursuit of cynical premiumisation and shameless profiteering; and Amazon, a faceless corporation hell bent on global domination and determined to destroy every small, independent business in its path, like a steamroller pummelling a row of toads.
Two companies that I absolutely hate and try my best to avoid giving my money to at all costs.
Long story short, I bought the bottle. I mean, principles are one thing… But a 50% discount on a cask strength Talisker is hard to argue with.
Review
Talisker 11yo, 2022 Special Release, ex-bourbon matured, 55.1% ABV
£52 paid, £111 RRP - still plenty out there, often discounted
The first thing I’ll say is that this is an attractive bottle. The marketing people at Diageo have managed to somehow shoehorn in a story about a jellyfish, which explains the colourful picture on the tube and which, somewhat unnecessarily, they’ve also managed to link to the distillery. I say it’s unnecessary, but I wouldn’t have a problem with it if useful information - i.e. whether or not the whisky is coloured - was also on there, but as with most Diageo releases, this info is conspicuously missing.
If there is E150a in here then they’ve been fairly sparing with it, as it’s not dark whisky by any means; but it would be nice to know for sure whether the colour was natural. As for chill-filtration, it’s cask strength so one hopes that isn’t an issue. Adding a drop of water brings out a lovely hazy Scotch mist which, to my mind, makes this whisky all the more enjoyable.
What we do get from the packaging is that it’s been matured in lightly peated ex-bourbon casks, which is part of the reason that I decided to take a punt on it. I’m not a big peat-head these days, and I tend to reach for bourbon matured whiskies more often than any other style, so lightly peated ex-bourbon immediately piqued my interest. Like I said before, I used to have a real fondness for Talisker, although over the last decade, the expressions that I have tried have left me rather cold.
Hopefully, this one might be the bottle that reignites my love for a distillery that, when I first started getting into whisky, was one that I regarded as being right at the pinnacle of what Scotch could be.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
After over-priced nonsense, is it now embarrassingly too cheap?
Nose
The nose is very expressive and typically Talisker. There’s a distinct maritime note here, in the form of rockpools, sea spray and barbequed meat. I also get new shoe leather, some salted caramel, some stewed black tea and some Indian ink. It’s not a complex nose by any means, but very satisfying. I’m fairly confident that if I nosed this blind, I could guess it was Talisker.
It is, after all, a distillery with very much its own character, which is probably why it remains so revered among enthusiasts - despite Diageo’s shenanigans over recent years.
Palate
Looking back at my notes, the first thing I wrote when I tasted this a couple of weeks ago was ‘classic Talisker.’
I get more of that maritime, sea spray sort of note, along with the black tea that I picked up on the nose. There’s some demerara sugar here and a nice umami note, like mushroom broth. There’s also some warm creosote and more of those barbequed meats. It’s also quite soapy - but in a good way.
The finish is quite drying - there’s a bitter but by no means unpleasant taste, like sloes, and also a touch of lemon. It’s a hot and spicy whisky, but at 55.1% that’s not really a surprise. Water tames it somewhat, but this is still a spirit-driven expression. For me that’s not a problem - in fact, if anything, it adds to the character.
As for the peat, it’s ashy and, despite being ‘lightly peated’ is quite present.
The Dregs
Here’s the thing with this Talisker: there’s no conceivable way that it’s worth the £110 that most retailers seem to be charging for it. However, it’s arguably worth more than £52.
£52 for cask strength, relatively well aged whisky, from what is generally regarded as a cult distillery, is probably too cheap.
And therein lies the problem with premiumisation: if you overprice something to begin with, and it languishes on shelves, eventually, you’re forced to discount it heavily in order to shift it; something which, ironically, cheapens your brand. A perception starts to set in - ‘it hasn’t sold so it can’t be that good,’ or, ‘there’s loads of Diageo Special Releases hanging around on shelves, so I can pick it up another day,’ or ‘sooner or later it’ll be discounted even further, so I may as well just hold out until that happens.’
With regards to this particular bottle, it’s back on Amazon right now for £104, but let’s face it, anybody who enjoyed the recent discount will likely hold out for another price drop before buying a back-up. After all, if you know that you can potentially pick this up for £52 then there’s no conceivable way that it can be worth over £100. The pricing is all over the place and it just sends out the message that Diageo don’t really know what they’re doing.
It's not just the Talisker Special Releases that are discounted, either. Google ‘Diageo Special Releases’ and you’ll be met with a smorgasbord of different prices for Special Releases from various years, with some retailers applying discounts of over 50%, whilst others hold out for RRP. The fact that many of these expressions are Special Releases from as far back as 2020 doesn’t look good either.
It raises the question of why Diageo continued to pursue the premiumisation of these brands so relentlessly. The Talisker 2020 Special Release, for instance, is still readily available at RRP from several online retailers. It’s literally been sitting on shelves and in warehouses for five years.
Did nobody at Diageo notice this? Did it not send out the message that they were flooding the market with expensive whisky that people didn’t want? Do they not understand the basic push and pull of supply and demand? Did nobody in the marketing department get the memo that premiumisation relies on the perception that a product is exclusive? That if you hawk your luxury goods on every conceivable corner, often applying huge discounts, they quickly cease to seem like a luxury?
Who knows? My guess would be that they were too busy making hay while the sun shone, to notice any gathering clouds on the horizon. Or if they did, they chose to ignore them, motivated instead by short term cynicism and the relentless need to please shareholders. Whatever the case, it’s all a mess now. Whisky sales are down across the board, and it’s unlikely that any of these bottles will shift without being heavily discounted.
For this particular whisky drinker, it’s a bitter-sweet pill. On one hand, I’m happy that prices finally seem to be coming down; on the other, I’m reluctant to give these brands any more of my money. I feel a bit like a jilted lover whose ex comes crawling back, begging for forgiveness - I still love them, but I’m reluctant to take them back and wary of being jilted again.
I also feel for the people who work for these distilleries - the tour guides, the people who answer the phones, the people who drive the forklifts in the warehouses. To these people, whisky is a living, not a hobby or a way to get rich, and I doubt very much that they’ve seen any of the huge profits that companies like Diageo have been making. What’s happening right now in the whisky industry will no doubt cost people their jobs. As they say, the proverbial faeces rolls downhill.
This is why we don’t need or want ‘cheap’ whisky. As enthusiasts, we’ve never asked for 50% discounts - we just want to be treated fairly. If distilleries are forced to sell their products too cheaply, because they overinflated the prices in the first place, then real people suffer. Cheap whisky is, after all, short termism, just as premiumisation is. The answer is to price your products sensibly and fairly to begin with, rather than chasing trends. That way, we all benefit - the distilleries, the consumers, and the people who work between the two.
It’s also why, although I’m enjoying this Talisker, I’ll continue to give Diageo distilleries a swerve, for now at least. I’d rather reward those distilleries who have spent the last few years pricing their products fairly; the distilleries who recognised the dangers of biting the hand that feeds them, and who chose instead to focus on making quality whisky at fair prices. There are many of them out there, and at a time when whisky sales are dropping precipitously across the board, it’s those distilleries that we should be supporting.
As for the Diageo Special Releases in my local off-license, hopefully they’ll at some point get opened and tasted. After all, if they decide to discount them further - which eventually, they’ll be forced to do - then perhaps they’ll be snapped up by drinkers like me and enjoyed.
Until then, they’ll likely sit there on the shelves behind the counter, looking expensive and alluring and remaining unopened.
Ironically, that’s probably what the marketing people at Diageo intended. After all, many of these Special Releases were sold as ornaments - bottles for investors and collectors, never meant to be consumed. With their fancy artwork, their vivid colours and their gold lettering, they’re designed to look good on most shelves.
The only shelves they don’t look good on, are the shelves of the retailers who are desperately trying to shift them. For the time being, though, I suspect that that’s where many of them will remain.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. FMc
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