Tag: The Talisker Distillery

Scotland: Isle of Skye 2 – At The Talisker Distillery

An account of a tour of the Talisker distiller on the Isle of Skye.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series about my Scottish holiday. My previous post contains links to all its predecessors in the series.

ARRIVING AT THE DISTILLERY

Tours of the Talisker Distillery are rather popular, so we had an hour to fill in before our tour started. There was an exhibition to look at and a gift shop. These occupied us for about half the time, and then we took shelter in my parent’s camper van for the rest. Here are some pictures from this preliminary period…

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Whiskey display 2
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THE TOUR

Most of the distillery itself was off limits as far as photography was concerned due to the possible triggering of dangerous chemical reactions. To give you an idea of the scale of the operation the whisky is produced in tranches of 30,000 litres at a time. Talisker whiskies are classified as mid-range peaty – not as peaty as the likes of Ardbeg, Islay, Lagavulin or Laphroaig but plenty peaty enough to taste. 

The whisky here is double distilled (they used to triple distill until recently). By the time it reaches the end of the distillation process it has an alcohol content of between 64 and 74 percent, and is then diluted with distilled water to reduced this to the desired level which varies between 40% minimum and 57% for the variety which is called 57 Degrees, linking its alcohol content to the latitude of this part of the world. 

The fermentation room contains eight giant containers, each at a different stage of the process, while there are two sets of stills. The first set consists of two each with a capacity of 17,000 litres and the second of three each with a capacity of 11,000 litres.

At the point at which it goes into the casks to mature the liquid is clear – the colour comes from the casks.

After we had seen the final stages of production there was the warehouse and a sampling session (a pub single each). In these closing stages photography was allowed again (I, unlike one of the others of our party had actually been listening when we were told this – I was annoyed when this individual piped up when I started photographing in the warehouse implying that I should not have been doing so, but the guide confirmed what I had already known by listening a few moments earlier – I was in the clear).

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The barrel loses 2% of its content to evaporation per year – after 38 years which this barrel has been there for the amount left would be 0.98 to the power of 38 where 1 stands for a full barrel.

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Whisky Samples
A few drops (emphasis on few) of water brings out the flavour

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DEPARTURE

We decided that the prices in the gift shop were just too high, especially as only one of our three gift vouchers could be used per purchase. The 57 Degrees was priced at £68, while the less strong local stuff was in the region of £40 per bottle. There were also some super-expensive (“Oligarch Prices” as I termed them at the time) bottles. The biggest price tag I saw was £2,400. 

 

Scotland – Isle of Skye 1: Ferry Cottage to Talisker Distillery

The first of several posts about the Tuesday of my Scottish holiday.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in the series about my Scottish holiday. We are now dealing with the Tuesday (May 30th), most of which was spent on the Isle of Skye. The day contained so much of interest and yielded so many splendid pictures that I am splitting it into a number of posts. Previous posts in this series:

THE FIRST MAJOR ACTIVITY

We decided that our first major activity would be a tour of the Talisker Distillery (the tour itself will be the theme of the next post in this series). As you will see from some of the photographs the weather was suitable for a day most of which would be spent under cover. 

THE GEOGRAPHY OF SKYE

Although Kyleakin is the more northerly of the settlements on Skye to have historic connections to the mainland (Armadale, with its ferry connection to Mallaig, is the other), it is still the case the most of Skye is to the north of Kyleakin.

Local Map

PHOTOS OF THE OUTWARD JOURNEY

The outward journey yielded some good pictures and gave me an idea for the way back as well…

River, Skye477

blurry waterfall
This waterfall is more than a bit blurred, but still worth showing.

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Stone bridge
I made a mental note that this was an area to get closer attention on the return journey, as you will see in a later post.

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This is the approach to the Distillery Car Park – and distillery visitors are understandably strongly discouraged from parking elsewhere in the village.