The Talisker Distillery Cellar, Skye, Scotland



Scotland – Skye, Day Four
For the fourth and final day in Skye we drove to the southwest section of the island again, but this time went down a small side-road and came to the Talisker Distillery. Talisker is Skye's oldest single malt whisky distillery , founded by the MacAskill brothers in 1830. Try as we might, we couldn't get a direct ancestral connection proven to these MacAskills, but it's a safe bet that somehow Norma is indeed part of the family, so we enjoy that thought anyway. We also truly enjoyed the tour and the whisky!
A whisky tour in Scotland, we discovered, is a fascinating glimpse at how each facility makes their own drink. Talisker uses traditional ingredients (water, barley and yeast) and malts the barley after drying over a peat fire, which is what gives Talisker its distinctive "smoky" taste. The mash is made in traditional wooden tubs, and then the wort is fermented and then distilled in large copper vessels. It is a most interesting process, and well worth doing a tour. After the tour, one also gets to sample the whisky with a "wee dram" (a sip or two) of the finished product which has been aged for 10 years or so. The whisky we saw being made will be the one we drink in 2027!
Photographically, again the advantage of a high resolution camera (my Nikon d800e) came into play as inside the distillery, you were allowed to take pictures in designated areas, but no flash was allowed, and no tripod. This meant, of course, that a higher than normal ISO would be needed and with the d800e's dynamic range I could safely underexpose and in post processing bring up detail out of shadow. Dynamic range is something many photographers would benefit from having a more complete knowledge of!
We then hiked around the area near the distillery, before having lunch and then driving to our next destination, Oban - which will be next week's blog!


Talisker Distillery

Talisker Special Edition - 35 year old
A Wee Dram of Whisky
Talisker Storm - a blend of single malts of various ages from the Talisker distillery