STILLS AND SEA AIR
Now the stillhouse makes its contribution to the whisky. Most
unusually Talisker has five stills, a legacy of the days of triple
distillation. The two wash stills are particularly interesting.
Above them are U-shaped lye pipes into which the vapours ascend.
A small secondary pipe carries some of the raw vapour back to the
still, an extraordinary layout that has an important influence upon
the character of the malt..
The distilled vapour passes to another remarkable Talisker feature,
the wooden 'worm tubs,' located outside the building where the cold
temperature helps condense the vapour to liquid. These ancient
vessels were saved from destruction by a fire in 1959 by a
miraculous last minute change in the wind.
Back comes the liquid into the stillroom to be further refined in the
spirit still, then recondensed again in more worm tubs before
passing on to the stillman's beautiful and ornate 'spirit safe.' Here
human skill and experience takes over as the stillman expertly
judges when to divert off the impure beginnings of distillation,
the 'foreshots', and the weak endings, the 'feints', for re-distillation.
Only the pure 'heart' of the spirits is finally laid to rest in oak casks
in the three distillery warehouses. Ten years, no less and no more,
are required for the last ingredient of all to tease the full
character of talisker.
And what is that ingredient? Stand on the old jetty and you can fill
your lungs with it. Skye sits directly in the Gulf Stream and that
moist, marine atmosphere helos round out the pungent, peppery
nature of this remarkable whisky.
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