The SMWS has recently had a fair amount of casks from Ledaig coming out recently, and I happened to have a couple others from years ago from the same distillation, so I decided to do the five of them side by side.
Minutia: Distilled on February 21, 2008 and matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead for 9 years and finished in a 1st-fill wine barrique charred and refitted with heavily toasted lids yielding 302 bottles. This is part of the Peated flavor profile named “Smoky spicy red rye ale”. Enjoyed side by side with its sister casks 42.44, 42.53, 42.60, & 42.63.
Color: Tawny; 1.4.8
Nose: Burnty, musty, meat.
Taste: Smoky bacon, spiced fruit.
Finish: Smoky, a fruity wave of flavor right after swallowing, smoky toffee. Long.
Really awesome finish, very long. Overall a great dram.
Score: 92
Ledaig 9, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.44, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 58.5% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on February 21, 2008 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead for 9 years yielding 232 bottles. This is part of the Peated flavor profile named “Winter warmer”. Enjoyed side by side with its sister casks 42.43, 42.53, 42.60, & 42.63.
Color: Deep gold; 0.8.
Nose: Salty smoke, seafood. Industrial.
Taste: Custard, industrial and earthy.
Finish: Smoke, toffee (very crispy/almost burnt), burnt. Long.
A very interesting and fun dram. I did not expect something as light as custard to come in here, but it did.
Score: 87
Ledaig 12, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.53, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 60.2% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on February 21, 2008 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead for 12 years yielding 303 bottles. This is part of the Peated flavor profile named “Mull me(n)tal”. Enjoyed side by side with its sister casks 42.43, 42.44, 42.60, & 42.63.
Color: Jonquil, ripe corn; 0.4.
Nose: Salty smoked meat.
Taste: Some sweet; bitter vegetation; burny.
Finish: Salt, smoked meat. Long.
A solid dram with a very powerful finish.
Score: 86
Ledaig 12, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.60, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 59.4% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on February 21, 2008 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead for 12 years yielding 162 bottles. This is part of the Peated flavor profile named “Sensationally sensual”. Enjoyed side by side with its sister casks 42.43, 42.44, 42.53, & 42.63.
Color: Pale gold; 0.3.
Nose: It took a while to figure out what it was, and it was tough to do without consider what it was like relative to the changes in the nose. It went from grilled seafood to beachy tar to light smoked fruit. Really interesting.
Taste: Light fruit. Peppery malt. Spice.
Finish: Light smoke and malt after a peppery start. Long.
For something like a Ledaig, this was surprisingly delicate, and a fun dram to have.
Score: 87
Ledaig 13, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.63, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 58.3% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on February 21, 2008 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead for 13 years yielding 164 bottles. This is part of the Peated flavor profile named “Thirst aid kit”. Enjoyed side by side with its sister casks 42.43, 42.44, 42.53, & 42.60.
Color: Pale straw; 0.2.
Nose: Seaside factory, petrichor.
Taste: Green wood, smoked cream (?), a beachy factory.
Finish: Funky, rice pudding, salty.
A really nice one, with a very interesting rice pudding kind of note early in the finish that’s hard to find again.
Score: 90
This was a really fun sister cask side by side. They are all squarely there own thing, but collectively can be accurately described as just really dirty. If you like that profile, any of these will not disappoint. Really interesting how the color got lighter as the age went up, and the ABV wasn’t going slightly downward, either.
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