Diageo’s Talisker has released a whisky that tastes as if it’s been kissed by the sea – because it has.
Called Xpedition Oak: The Atlantic Challenge, this new release from Talisker uses ocean-seasoned barrel staves to echo the founding story of the beloved whisky maker on the Isle of Skye. At 43 years of age, Xpedition Oak: The Atlantic Challenge is the oldest whisky Talisker has ever released.
According to global master of whisky at Diageo Ewan Gunn, those ocean-aged staves managed to further heighten the unique flavor profile for which Talisker is famous.
“The first thing I would say about Talisker is that it’s a particularly distinct style of whisky,” Gunn says. “It has signature spice, it’s got smoke, but it’s got a lovely sort of maritime, coastal nature as well. And I think for fans of Talisker, that’s one of the reasons why they love it so much — it’s just that really distinct style that it has. We’ve actually chosen with this release to really amplify and highlight that coastal style.”
As soon as you smell the liquid, you’re just transported to the shore outside the distillery. The distillery has the waves of the Atlantic crashing on the warehouse walls pretty much every day of the year.
to thorough storytelling and offers a journey no whisky lover can refuse.
To build on Talisker’s sea-kissed flavours, the distillery teamed up with adventurer James Aiken, who sailed solo across the Atlantic Ocean, tracing the route of the brand’s celebrated trans-Atlantic rowing race — Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge — with his boat, Oaken Yarn. Aiken’s cargo on his 24-day solo journey? Oak staves from Talisker whisky barrels.
“He followed the same route that the rowers who compete in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge do every year – 3,264 miles,” Gunn says. “He actually sailed across the Atlantic with a hundred cask staves lashed to the deck of his boat. They were constantly soaked by the waves. They went through a process where they were soaked by the sea salt, then dried in the sun, and that was repeated multiple times.”
That journey paralleled a bit of Talisker’s own history, when the MacAskill brothers rowed from the Isle of Eigg to the Isle of Skye to create the Talisker distillery in 1830.
After Aiken’s voyage, the ocean-seasoned oak staves were used to construct just 10 whisky hogsheads, small barrels of about 66 gallons. A special well-aged Talisker whisky was then selected for those barrels.
“We matured the whisky first of all in a combination of refill hogsheads and European oak butts before then moving it into those Atlantic-seasoned hogsheads for a period of secondary maturation,” Gunn says. “Each one of the 10 casks that we used for the secondary maturation of this whisky was built using 10 of these staves, along with other staves.”
