Ledaig 18 Year

Ledaig 18yr N: sherried, sweet and slightly peated with salted smoked BBQ qualities to the nose. There’s also a nice leathery funky and oaky notes dancing around in the back. P: fantastic oaky smoked and salt meat with a dark cherry gaze feeling going on. Green fruit like apples and pears come up when the BBQ steps aside with a burst of cinnamon, ginger and pepper. You get a little bit of oaky bitterness but it doesn’t last and isn’t unpleasant. This is a very chewy whiskey which I really dig. F: long, sweet/salty smoked meat and sherry. The age comes out a little more on the finish after the BBQ calms down with some oaky tannins but the smoke really stays with you. Solid, chewy mouth coating whiskey which has some great notes and surprises. 89

Peaty. Sweet. Liqourice. Littlebit salty.

Dry hay

SHERRY before peat, and it's a spicy rather than fruity or sweet kind of sherry. Soft light marzipan/ almonds. Dry walnut shells, dusty malt, dusty bourbon note. Leather. chamomile, dry peppermint / mint, cooling eucalyptus. Oak nuts, oak forest. Pine resin. Orange peels, dates, peach, apricot, lemon peels. Lemon grass. Soft minerality. Chestnuts. Ginger, nutmeg. Floral: daisies, cherry blossoms, lilies, rose petals. East Asian type cooking spices. SAFFRON. cloud berries, rhubarb and gooseberries. Fresh cut grass note. Hay. Nectarines, dried. Anise. Carrots, fresh out of the ground. HORSE RADISH. Cocoa powder. Touch of banana peels. Smoked herring. Black pepper. Pepper steak, also bell peppers. Ferns, green shrubs, the pungent scents of early summer burgeoning verdure. Garlic bread sticks. Red and dry black licorice. Balsamic vinegar spices. Cola cubes. Mixed barbecue spices. Hint of cardamon. White pepper. Curry rice. With air and a drop of water, vanilla, white grapes. - slight rancio. Aromatic sort of leather shoe store note, that soft elegant leather note you find in an Ardbeg 10, strong at first but it quickly tones itself down: New car smell. Peat and sherry equalize and balance each other out after some time. Smoked meat peatiness as the bottle gets air. Smoked bacon. Not fishy or particularly tarry; only mildly coastal. ( EDit: Gets more sea-spray-y and seafood-y after a few months: fish sashimi, shrimp on the barbie. Fudge-y chocolate also more prominent. ) - A noticeable but not overwhelming presence of sulfur, which some people have issues with. And it must be said, there's quite an in-your-face wet cardboard note. A drop of water and especially aeration mitigates this: with enough air a distinct tiger balm note half takes over, then also barbecue spice, salt & pepper potato chips. It will, with a bit of patience, turn into a properly gratifying experience. Take it slow.

Decent. Didn’t have with ice which might have taken the edge off. Excellent aroma.

Even if I didn’t really like this whisky, I’m still glad I tasted it. It wasn’t a negative experience but also not a positive one as well. The really present and straight forward peat on this one wasn’t for me but I can understand that this might be really enjoyable to others who like peat-heavy whisky. The nose overwhelms you directly with a peat that doesn’t smell burned though. What I got from it was tobacco and raw earthy peat. And it also comes with a very intense waxed leather smell - a bid like when you open a box of new suede boots. A bid chemical almost - and medicinal. The palate is more relaxed first. When you get behind the peat you find some molasses, licorice and also some Marmite first but this quickly gets overshadowed by tobacco ash tastes, that aren’t very pleasant. It tastes like a wet ash tray smells. This bid is what made this whisky fail for me. Everything else was still quite enjoyable but the aggressive ash on the taste which sticks to your tongue for a very long time, just was too much.