I enjoy the Storm, but i've also learnt that they can be considerable batch variations between bottlings, especially the more recent labellings, and more-so than any other Scotch that I have.
Completely agree on this one. It's good, but around me, the 10 is the same price and same abv, and blows it away. I've had friends who prefer this over the 10 though.
I had a bottle of the Storm with the blue label and I enjoyed it a lot. Didn't notice the aftertaste you referred to, and if it was a saccharin/aspartame aftertaste then I'm pretty sure I would have noticed. I will definitely be sure to taste before I pick up another bottle.
I agree with the point about age statements however pricing plays a big role on those sweet characters and the lack of enough cask influence. Something like this is priced appropriate for a NAS in my opinion. I think I got my bottle under 50 bucks like 2 or 3 years ago. If they tried to play this off as a premium NAS then it would definitely be much more offensive. I don't reach for it often for some of the reasons you hit on in your tasting notes. I have the older blue label too.
My first Storm was very similar to the 10. I wasn't very experienced with peat at that point. But I think they both showed good Talisker-esqu. NAS is depressing. Whisky is a product that offers no recourse for the consumer if they don't like it. The marketing department can say whatever they want to encourage you to buy this over that and after the purchase you done.
I don’t like the marketing from Talisker, this ‘made by the sea’ stuff The malt from Talisker comes from scotland and is malted at glen ord maltings in scotland, no sea in the neighborhood, from there the malt is being transported to Talisker on skye island. There the malt will be milled, mashed, fermented and distilled, after maybe 1 week the new make spirit will be transported to blackgrange, there the spirit will be put in the casks and after maturation it will be chill filtered and coloured with E150 as diageo does with almost all of their whisky’s So, if you want to be misleaded, then buy Talisker, personally i avoid Talisker and almost all diageo stuff, the casks are not great and it is all too mass produced… If you want an integrity island malt, then try ledaig 10 or 18.. it is unchillfiltered and natural colour at 46% as it should be..
