Talisker distillery is restless and so it released another new release – Talisker Skye. It’s the fourth new release in the last two years. Yes, your eyesight is perfect. Read it again, it ain’t no mistake: four new Talisker NAS releases in the last two years.

For a distillery that used to have a very thin yet muscled core line-up, this is quite a big change, doubling their lineup offerings from four whiskies to eight. So what’s the reasoning of releasing yet another (NAS) whisky (beyond the growing demand for single malts)?

This time it looks like they are trying to target a new audience and broaden their customer base with an offer of a softer whisky while retaining the Talisker identity. Lets check if it does work that way:

Talisker Skye (45.8%, £38.95/€31.95)

Nose: Initial notes of peat and pepper, then comes the other half of the equation with vanilla, sweet honey, pears and peaches. After a few minutes, the peat note now seriously lag behinds, the pepper is dimnished and it’s more gentle, round and sweeter. With even more time there’s almost no peat and pepper and it’s mostly sweet and vanilla.

Palate: Initial sip brings peat smoke, sweet fruits with apricots, pears and peaches, vanilla, ashes and pepper. The peat and ashes in later sips are much less prominent, the pepper is more of the white pepper variety and its all accompanied with sweet vanilla and honey.

Finish: Medium long finish with lingering pepper and sweet peat, fruits and vanilla.

Thoughts: It definitely worked as intended. Talisker Skye is indeed an introduction to Talisker whisky. Softer, rounder, much less fierce, just like Laphroaig Select is the new entry point to Laphroaig. If you’re a Talisker fan and like the peat and pepper notes, it may disappoint you but all others are welcomed to enjoy it. By the way: I found it weird that the European price has 40% discount over the UK price. Not sure what’s the reasoning here but best fetch it in European store.