Talisker distillery is an island single malt Scotch whisky distillery based in Carbost, Scotland on the Minginish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The distillery is operated by Diageo and Taliskers’ 10 year old whisky has been nominated as part of their Classic Malts series. The brand is considered a premium single malt Whisky. In 1830 Hugh MacAskill leased the site from the MacLeods, having raised £3,000 and built the distillery. He chose to name it after his estate, Talisker, (some 5 miles west) rather than the village in which it was located. History After a number of false starts, the distillery was founded in 1830 by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill. It opened at Carbost in 1831 after they acquired the lease of Talisker House from Clan MacLeod. In 1879, it was purchased for £1,810 () by a firm which became known as R. Kemp & Co. when it had a production capacity of 700 gallons per week. The principal partner was A.G. Allan, Procurator-Fiscal for Elginshire. The other partner was Roderick Kemp, wine merchant of Elgin. The distillery was rebuilt 1880–87 and extended in 1900. A new lease for the distillery was negotiated in 1892 with the chief of Clan MacLeod ifor an annual payment of £23.12s () and a ten-gallon cask of best-quality Talisker. By 1894 the output was up to 2,000 gallons per week. In 1895 the business was converted into a limited liability company with Thomas Mackenzie as managing partner, but the shares were not offered to the public. Talisker was acquired by Distillers Company in 1925 and is now part of Diageo. On 12 August 1948 a fire broke out in the store of the distillery. No whisky was destroyed, but grain in store and over 100 empty barrels were lost. The distillery was rebuilt again in 1960 after a stillhouse fire completely destroyed the distillery. The distillery operates five stills; two wash stills and three spirit stills. All the stills use worm tubs (condensing coils) rather than a modern condenser, which are believed to give the whisky a "fuller" flavour (itself an indication of higher sugar content). During this early period, the whisky was produced using a triple distilling method, but changed to the more conventional double distilling in 1928. After the 1960 fire, five exact replicas of the original stills were constructed to preserve the original Talisker flavour. In 1972 the stills were