Dreaming-of-Islay
Ledaig 10 Year
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
August 10, 2017 (edited March 23, 2018)
When I had this, I suddenly thought, "What is up with this weird ABV that somehow Bunnahabhain and Ledaig both decided would be their bottling strength?" Google quickly informed me that the two have shared ownership, which now makes sense. Ledaig is a peated scotch from the Isle of Mull, a bit south of Islay, and in everything but geographical origin basically is an Islay scotch. It has a nice, peaty entry, with a warm, buttered toast, crispy-crust smoke, but also a healthy dose of new-log-on-the-campfire aroma. Other than that, I get a citrus lemon or lime combination very similar to Kilchoman Machir Bay and Ardbeg 10, with just a hint of minerality. The palate is sweeter than those two, but the flavors don't pop quite as much. Its light, pleasant sweetness kind of makes me imagine what a peated Glenmorangie would be like. The finish is mellow peat, woodiness and grassiness, salt and brine, and then a bit of tang or acidity at the very end. This scotch reads to me like a more mature version of Machir Bay, but I'm missing some of that youthful energy. They are quite close, though, and honestly I would mistake one for the other easily in a blind tasting.
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I really enjoyed this one. I actually liked it more than the 18.
That is brilliant!
I was told that this odd ABV of 46.3% ABV - which Burn Stewart Distillers chose for all their Single Malts - is no coincidence. Great international spirit competitions are generally blind tastings where the reviewer is only given the ABV. Having a solid knowledge of Single Malts, this information is more or less a direct hint on what malt you are testing. Whether that is an advantage or disadvantage might vary, but given the amount of Gold Medals won by Burn Stewart malts in the past few years, I think the answer is obvious.