AGED: 14 years DISTILLED ON: February 14, 2006 BOTTLE ON: September 25, 2020 MATURED IN: a Refill Butt VATTING CASK NO: DRU 17/A65 #7 BOTTLE NO: 643 Un-chillfiltered | Natural Colour
What Gary Says
Nose: Sherried dark fruit, raw honey, toffee, grilled peaches, smoky, spent matchsticks and sea mist. Palate: Thick mouthfeel, savory sherry notes, allspice, honey, raisins, subtle peat and a bit of pepper. Finish: Moderately long, wet with dark fruits and trailing pepper spice. Comments: If I had to guess (which is all I can do), I’d peg this as Highland Park – which seems like a safe bet since there’s only two distilleries on Orkney (the other being Scapa, which I’m not familiar with). But it definitely reminds me of Highland Park, although a refill butt so less sherry intensity. This is also lighter in color than Highland Park 12 yr. I really like how this dram clouds up with some water, which also tamps down the sherry notes on the palate and brings out more island notes.
Bottled at cask strength of 53% ABV and without chill-filtration or artificial colouring, this single malt has matured beautifully as a result of 20 years in an ex-sherry butt. The traditionally lightly-peated notes of Highland Park are still present, however they have softened over time and have been complimented with a hint of salt and notes of mixed fruit, baked apples and honey from the sherry cask.
What Gary Says
Nose: Peat fire with salted sea mist, fruity with cherries, peaches, raisins, vanilla, chocolate with cedar-smoked pork roast. Palate: Rich mouthfeel with honey, apples, cherries, pepper, chocolate, toffee, walnuts and peat. Finish: Long and damp with fruity peat notes. Comments: A rather nice Highland Park bottling. Before researching the bottle details, I would not have pegged this as being fully matured in sherry (first the color isn’t what you’d expect for that age in sherry), so guessing it is a second or maybe third fill sherry (as they have a lot of sherry casks around Highland Park). Which isn’t a bad thing by any stretch – since the retail Highland Park gives you that big sherry take on their distillate. A nice balance that lets the distillery’s character shine through while giving you some of those luscious fruit notes from the sherry.
Some things in life are best enjoyed in their most intense forms. This includes your closest friendships, your favourite songs, and exceptionally intense single malt whiskies. Full Volume is a robust, beautifully balanced whisky, exclusively matured in Kosher certified ex-bourbon casks, rather than our traditional sherry casks. This allowed us to turn up the volume on those succulent creamy bourbon notes. Distilled in 1999, the resulting 17-year jam session of maturation yielded an ABV of 47.2% and was bottled and released in 2017. The intense flavour profile delivers creamy vanilla and light citrus fruits, all balanced out by Highland Park’s characteristic smokiness.
NATURAL CASK-DRIVEN COLOUR (NO ADDITIVES) Light straw, clear and bright
Using 100% FIRST-FILL BOURBON CASKS rather than sherry seasoned ones
Combining 200 LTR BARRELS and 250 LTR HOGSHEADS
Filling 481 CAKS on the 30th March; 29th April; 10th, 17th and 31st August; 7th September – All during 1999
Filling at strengths of between 63.6% AND 63.7%
Filtered at +4 degrees C
Richard Burton from Kirkwall, was our warehouseman when these casks were laid down – he is still working with us!
TASTING NOTES
Full Volume is a 1999 Vintage, intensely balanced, single malt Scotch whisky. Naturally PALE AND BRIGHT in colour, it delivers a LIGHT PEATY AROMA, punctuated with WARM FRUITY NOTES of exotic mango and pineapple and an echo of cedar wood. Warm and generous in the mouth, a SWEET CITRUS treble of lemon peel perfectly offsets deeper bass notes of CREAMY VANILLA while subtle mid-tones of LIGHT SMOKE maintain an enticing harmony.
What Gary Says
Nose: Honey malt, peat, heather, grassy, bit of vanilla, hint of sea salt and iodine. Palate: Malty vanilla, bit of soft citrus with pears, bit of peat, pepper and a hint of mandarin oranges. Finish: Moderately long, drying with honeyed peat and pepper spice. Comments: I like Highland Park, and did my best to not try to think of this like Highland Park as it would be a departure without the sherried maturation. I didn’t find anything off putting, but for the money, I would be disappointed. Left me unimpressed, although it is an interesting view into the distillate and maturation without the sherry influence. Dangerously drinkable, but a tad forgettable for me.
57.8% ABV $75 Website We would like to thank Paul (who shares reviews on Distiller.com, as well as reviews and general musings on his YouTube channel Dapper Drams) for the sample to review!
What the Distillery Says
Talisker 57° North takes its name from this remote, rugged and windswept distillery’s latitude. And rightly so, because this is an untamed, natural expression of the Talisker’s full power: a volcanic, intensely appealing flavour that most drinkers will have only experienced in a cask strength bottling.
Appearance: Full gold. Nose: Clean and intense, with the light smoke of a struck match. Creamy toffee balanced by fruit. Hints of seaweed, heather blossom and vanilla. Body: Explosive, intense and smoky. Palate: Sweet, with smoke and tar exploding around the middle – evoking the raw volcanic power which formed Skye’s famous Black Cuillin mountains. Finish: Oily, tingling with the signature pepperiness. Smoother with water.
What Gary Says
Nose: Big sea-mist, iodine, oysters, sea-brine, acrid smoke, vanilla with hints of chocolate. Palate: Sweet with apricots, pears and caramel to start, than a pepper pop midway through with sulfur, smoke and peat. Finish: Long, drying with pepper and sea salt. Comments: This is Talisker with the volume turned up past 11. A non-age stated bottling, but nothing in my experience would lead me to believe it is young. While the proof will up the umph, taking a 5 yr malt at near cask strength wouldn’t be that similar of a profile when diluted. After making my notes, I decided to take 10 mL and bring it down to about 92 proof, and it reminded me of Talisker 10 yr – so my guess is that it isn’t far off in terms of age. Regardless of age, this is just delicious. If you are a fan of Talisker or peaty malts in general, I’d highly recommend trying it. I think you’d enjoy it.
This was a single-cask bottling that Richard picked up in Tennessee in April 2015, and Gary is now kicking himself for not picking up. Cask #217 Bottle 183/562 Bottled 2/5/2014 Distilled 2/17/1997
What Gary Says
Nose: Damn this nose is thick! Full of BBQ sauce, molasses, smokey oak, tangy dark fruit with hints of balsamic. Palate: Promised & delivered – lovely thick, chewy mouthfeel, rich with sherry sweetness, bitter chocolate, and nutty spice. Finish: Long, with the dark fruit memory slowly fading while dropping pepper spice along the way. Comments: Wow this is a fabulous bottle! I remember when Richard picked it up, and now tasting it REALLY wish I’d have grabbed a bottle. I don’t get BBQ sauce that often, but on three different tastings I noted (and underlined) it here. Unfortunately as a single cask, likely no chance of finding this bottle – but if I stumble upon some bottling of aged Arran in sherry, I’ll definitely give it serious consideration.
