Whisky : Ledaig 13 Year; Elixir Distillers’ Single Malts of Scotland

Country/Region : Islands

ABV : 57.3%

Cask : Sherry Butt 

Age : 13 Years (Distilled 23 Oct. 2005, Bottled 23 Jan. 2019)

Nose : Two-faced : one moment the nose is blue berry pound cake or cherry cobbler, the next moment charcoal grilled seafood and fat.  The presence of salt on the nose comes and goes, when it does the nose turns more savory or maritime like crispy salmon skin or maple bacon.  When the salt fades minty hot chocolate, cookie dough— all sorts of sweet desserts and fruits emerge.  

Palate :  Medium bodied, the dram is dominated by a lovely fruit profile.  Stewed stone fruits, poached apples, sour cherries, and dried pickled plums give a lovely sweet-salty-tart complexity.  Layers of spice accent the fruits: cloves, salt, and the green licorice flavor of shiso.  The spice and fruit notes reminds me a bit of an ume and shiso onigiri (a rice ball with salty pickled plum and shiso leaf in it).  Rich mesquite smoke, leather, and meaty seafood notes form near the end building to the finish.

Finish : Lingering sweet Christmas spices and pickled fruits.

Score : 7

Mental Image : Day Old Dirty Yakiniku Grill.

Something Similar : Ardmore 12 Year SMWS 66.141 (similar shiso/spice, more tropical/smoke)

Something Similar : Ardbeg Grooves (similar charcoal grill/fat, sweeter/smokier)

Something Worse : Johnnie Walker “Oldest” (similar mesquite note, less complex, less body)

Notes : This was a delightfully strange dram— but that is par for the course when it comes to Ledaig.  The transition between pastries to seafood on the nose was pretty wild, while the flavor profile on the palate transitioned more smoothly between fruity and savory.  Overall the nose and the finish of the dram were both superb— they were so complex with so many different impressions competing to stand out.  The palate was just a bit simpler, the flavors almost appearing as if in a neat line rather than a dog pile.

Both times my wife tried this dram she remarked, upon finding out it was Ledaig, that maybe she is a Ledaig fan.  We have had a number of delicious Ledaig lately which I’ve slowly been posting this week.  There is a lot to love with Ledaig, they are still under the radar of most consumers and therefore do not command the often astronomical prices as some of the peated malts from Islay.  I think their official bottlings are excellent standard fare and there are a lot of delicious independently bottled Ledaig available as well, so there are lots of ways to enjoy Ledaig, typically without breaking the bank.

The sherry influence on this melded very well with some of the funky and maritime notes of the malt, neither really dominating or taking over the other.  While I got a lot of different pastry notes on the nose, the wife found the salty notes to be far more dominant with just occasional bursts of sweet honey.  No matter whether you align more with her palate or mine, we both found this dram to be absolutely delicious and really savored each glass.