Talisker is the only major distillery in Scotland that I’ve never visited, which is ironic because it’s perhaps my favorite Scottish single malt.

Why have I never made it out to Talisker? Because it’s on a rugged and remote island off the west coast of Scotland called Skye, and—unlike Islay—there’s only been one distillery out there to visit, so I could never justify it from a business standpoint.

But now there is a second.

Torabhaig distillery has been in the works for some time, but it finally came to fruition in 2016 when—after more than a decade of planning—the first stills and washbacks were commissioned. The first spirit was distilled in January of 2017, and—as has become custom in recent years—single malt fans have been dying for a peek at what that spirit tastes like after three years in cask. If you’re one of those folks, you can grab the new 2017 Torabhaig “Legacy Series” Single Malt Whisky from our Pasadena store while we still have any left.

Torabhaig is owned by the same group that does the Mossburn whiskies (some of the best values in the market, I might add). Upon its founding, it became the first new distillery on Skye in almost two hundred years. The formula is a peated one, clocking in somewhere between 50-60 ppm, and it bears a stylistic resemblance to its neighbor Talisker. This first release is aged entirely in ex-Bourbon casks and was limited to just 100 barrels for the entire planet. It’s bottled at 46% ABV, and it’s not chill filtered.

As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the heralded whisky reviewer Serge compared it favorably to peated Chichibu, which got everyone’s attention real fast.

Having sipped on it for the weekend, I can give you three reasons why you’ll want a bottle:

• Trying new single malt whiskies from new Scottish distilleries is always fun, and this is one of the best inaugural launches I’ve tasted. It is perfectly-balanced whisky, moving between sweet and supple stone fruit (think fresh apricots), sweet vanilla from the oak, sweet barley grains, and sweet peat. The finish is like sugar rock candy with a touch of iodine and olive brine, the subtle smoke lending a lingering campfire note.

• The price isn’t outrageous. Sure, you can get 10 year old Ardbeg for about the same price, but you’ve had that 100 times already. It’s not often you get to try an entirely new whisky from an entirely new distillery that’s got more to offer than the initial discovery. Trust me, you’ll be excited to drink every drop of this.

• There’s not a whole lot of this available, so by the time you realize you do want one it might be too late.

I had a lunch meeting with the Beam team today (in my backyard for safe social distancing) and got the chance to try the new 2021 limited edition of the Maker’s 46 Wood Finishing Series. This one will be known as “FAE-01” and comes in at 55.3% ABV. What I appreciate very much about this Maker’s 46 series is that it seeks to innovate within the lexicon of traditional Bourbon flavors: new oak, and nothing more.

While other producers are playing around with cask finishes, new grains, radical recipes, and more modern points of differentiation, Maker’s is simply inserting different types of oak staves into the cask to see what happens. There’s nothing in the flavor profile of the new FAE (Fatty Acid Esters) edition that tastes gimmicky. What’s really exciting about it, however, is that it tastes like a completely different Bourbon than your standard MM. This whiskey has circus peanuts galore on the nose, and almost no presence of baking spices, which to me is the calling card of Maker’s. It’s all sweet oak, char, cedar, mahogany, savory spices, and more peanuts. I loved it.

And….I got to taste with my old pal Johnnie Mundell who I hadn’t seen in ages. He was decked out in Maker’s gear from head to toe: beanie, mask, flannel, pin, bag, socks. My new Beam friend Jaime Streem brought lunch and chocolate chip cookies while we sipped, which may have been the best pairing of the year for me.

The new Maker’s 46 2021 LE should be available within the week. Watch for that, but make sure you sign up for my insider email on the right hand side of this blog if you wanna be the first to know.

-David Driscoll