
December 4, 2017

The Ledaigathon Part 2

After last Thursday’s very pleasant peaty session, let’s simply go on, there’s plenty of Ledaig on the tasting table at WF Towers.

Ledaig 10 yo 2005/2016 (56.6%, Signatory Vintage for Taiwan, 1st fill sherry butt, cask #900149, 616 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: one cannot not think of the first Uigeadails, really. Huge creosote-y arrival, with litres of brine as well, new Wellies, and a very earthy sherry, then a whole plate of Iberico ham, possibly from the sherry (yes I’m trying to joke). With water: burnt orange cake, brown sugar, and some used engine oil. Ex-V8. Mouth: huge! Some cough syrup, that make from that distillery on that shore on that island, a bag of older walnuts, and a biting, bone-dry olorosoness. Cocoa powder, bitter oranges. Huge, really. With water: doesn’t change much, except that it gets saltier, becoming rather fino-ish. Some redistilled Tio Pepe, perhaps? Finish: extremely long, nicely bitter, and full of smoky walnuts. Comments: perhaps not a very good idea to kick this off with such a monster. SGP:378 - 88 points.

While we’re doing sherried that kills…

Ledaig 18 yo 1998/2016 (62.7%, Wilson & Morgan, sherry, butt #800032, 445 bottles)

Get prepared… Colour: full gold. Nose: oh, but this is gentler, and more akin to some good mildish Jamaican rum! It’s really as if they were making it less peaty back in the late 1990s, but this nose is just great as well, rather more on leather and tobacco, game, caraway, and certainly eucalyptus and menthol. We shan’t complain, this works too… With water: ink and mint, then liquorice and mushrooms after the rain. Mouth (neat): extremely rich, and yet a little lighter again, starting with superb notes of Cointreau and crème de menthe, and rather going on with some cough syrup and mullein flower liqueur (ever tried that?) More pipe tobacco after a short while, and indeed a saltiness again. With water: ideas of Uigeadail again. Isn’t that an obsession, Doc? Finish: very long, and saltier yet. Leather, tobacco, brine, smoked ham. Bitter oranges in the aftertaste. Comments: I tend to like the zestier ones even better, but this is great, it cannot be denied. SGP:466 - 88 points.

Ledaig 13 yo 2004/2017 (55.2%, The Single Malts of Scotland, hogshead, cask #37)

Ledaig 13 yo 2004/2017 (55.2%, The Single Malts of Scotland and LMDW, hogshead, cask #37)

Colour: pale white wine. Nose: there’s something of ‘older’ Ledaig in this, with some porridge, as well as some butyric and slightly yeasty/feinty notes, but this baby’s soon to become much, much, and I mean much cleaner, zestier, blade-ier, and yet it retains a fatty side, with some grape pip oil and notes of fatty fish. Scottish farmed salmon, perhaps? Is this for sushi? It’s true that it’s a bit sake-like at times. With water: dry, rather fermentary, and even more fino-ish than Signatory’s 2005. Mouth (neat): perfect, just perfect. Lemon juice, smoked fish (not obligatorily salmon), and green tea. With water: same, it’s all perfect. A tad saltier now. Finish: long, salty, lemony, smoky. Great touches of peach behind that. Comments: it’s not totally impossible that Ledaig became the #1 peater in the 2000s. It’s just great to see them getting mature… SGP:457 - 90 points.

Ledaig 8 yo 2008/2016 (60.9%, Archives, sherry butt, cask #700712, 609 bottles)

A very young one with a label that, for once, may suggest what’s inside the bottle, as far as aromas are concerned. Colour: white wine. Nose: it is a tad rougher, and the cask may have been a little more active this time (coffee, butterscotch), but this profile is just great. Iodine, Mercurochrome, mud, tar, kelp, engine oil, old whelks. No, really old whelks (any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental). With water: perfect, very medicinal. Mouth (neat): smashes you, burns you, and invades your airway. And yet, it’s a pleasant feeling. Smoked and salted lemon juice, plus bitter fruits and vegetables. Artichokes, for example. With water: those artichokes, salted, smoked, and sprinkled with lime juice. Finish: very long, with notes of juniper this time. Comments: granted, it’s a tad brutal and not polite enough, but it delivers greatly. Huge quality/age ratio. SGP:368 - 89 points.

Hold on, there’s another one by TWE’s consortium of fine whiskies…

Ledaig 11 yo 2005/2016 (56.8%, The Single Malts of Scotland, sherry butt, cask #900161, 564 bottles)

Watch this, I’ve tried some 2005s that have been much too young, but 11 years should do… Colour: full gold. Nose: ah, old-Ledaigness, with a little metal, some yeast, and some porridge. This one’s a little bizarre, I have to say. In the style of the 1980s Ledaigs, not the best period ever… With water: more damp cardboard and rusty old tools, plus hints of cow dung. We’re well in the 1980s… Mouth (neat): it’s not as clean as the others indeed, there are notes of Swiss cheese, baker’s yeast… But things tend to improve, while there’s always a porridge-y roughness in the back. With water: we almost tamed it, it got very earthy and vegetal at the same time. Pure smoked humus. Finish: long, on just the same notes. Comments: a strange dirty beast, this one. It’s got many stories to tell you, but some are rather frightening. SGP:367 - 79 points.

Not sure I told you before, I’ve decided not to have more than five of these in a row. So, see you next time…

Check the index of all Ledaig I've tasted so far