2019 Advent #24 - Ledaig 12 Present Future

I’ve become a massive fan of Ledaig since trying the 10, so it’s fitting this is the closer of the 2019 Advent project. The spirit they make is so good, as long as the price is right I’d pretty much buy anything they made without checking reviews and I’d recommend it to just about anyone who isn’t allergic to anything in it. I’ve not yet had a Sherried Ledaig, and even though I speculatively bought this before knowing how I felt about Ledaig I am eager to try it.

Ledaig 12 Present Future, Mull Single Malt, 58.4% ABV

Minutia: Distilled in 2005 and bottled by The Whisky Exchange for the Whisky Show 2018. Matured in a Sherry butt. This is meant to represent a style of whisky coming into favor now and where whisky is trending in the immediate future. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Brown Sherry, 1.9.

Nose: Definite smoke and fruit, some funk.

Taste: Fruity malt, some smoke, big heat.

Finish: Smoke and funk jump out. The heat wobbles in intensity as it all fades over a long finish.

Guess: This was the last in the pool so I knew what it was going in, thus the “blind” in quotes in the title. Next year I’ll be selecting 24 from a pool of n>24 and not looking at what doesn’t get selected to allow all to be done blindly.

I am very disappointed this isn’t really available anymore. Holy smokes is this good. While having this I was thinking it’s what I wanted Bunnahabhain 12 to be, if it had the smoky element this does I’d have liked it a ton more. That has me looking more forward to their peated stuff. This also has me excited that I pulled the trigger on a similarly aged IB Ledaig that was also Sherried and can’t open that soon enough. Can they make anything bad? I’ll keep buying until I find out, but I suspect I won’t ever find it.

Score: 93

Here are links to the other posts from this calendar: