Barry Nisbett, our whiskey guide, explains how Talisker is known for a distinctive, sea-salty salinity and how it’s released in oak casks (once used to age bourbon) in sub-zero temperatures. Completes its maturity, which enhances the effects of wood aging. As I sip the golden, honey-coloured liquid, a rush of warmth spreads across my chest as the group calls out their tasting notes: cinnamon, green apple, marzipan, toffee, toasted almond.. .For me, ginger, dried apricots and ground black pepper with a wonderfully persistent finish of spicy. I quietly observe my reverence for drinking the liquid that began to age in 1978, the year Christopher Reeve debuted as Superman. Is it rude to ask for a top-up, I guess, or is it rude not to? I stand and internalize until Nesbitt, reading the room, pauses again.
Strömfjárrada River, seen from Dalur Fishing Lodge, Snöfellsnes Peninsula, Icelandalexander barlow
Outside, the mist had cleared to reveal the immensity of the glacier, a vast infinity of thick ice with a horizon shrouded in pearl-white clouds – a world to us, soft and opaque, as if covered in muslin. Back at the estate, the setting sun turns the sky the color of champagne as we sip hot toddies by the campfire next to the fast-flowing river. But then a confession: Last night, one of our group was left alone, and he saw the northern lights appear unexpectedly on the horizon. The atmosphere is filled with electric excitement as we all resolve to try to repeat his good fortune that evening.
Dalur Estate, Snefellsnes Peninsula, Icelandalexander barlow
I was the only one to keep the promise. After the last whiskey of the night, I found myself outside. The wind stops, there is no sound except flowing water. I sit alone in the soft, warm waters of the geothermal pool, look up to the dark sky beyond the shadows of the mountain peaks, and wait.
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