Whisky : Tobermory ‘Ledaig’ 11 Year; The Exclusive Malts

Country/Region : Scotland/Islands

ABV : 57.6%

Cask : Refill Hogshead

Age : 11 Years (Distilled Nov. 8, 2005)

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home

Nose : Salty olives, smokey funky cheese, and dried nori.  There is a lot of funk that accompanies a bit of sweet vinegar and a bit of meaty BBQ cheeseburger.

Palate :  A smokey hot brick oven in the middle of a salty mangrove swamp.  Sweet smoke off a chimney burning beach dried drift wood.  There are hints of fried cheese, smoked nori seaweed chips, and miso paste. 

Finish : Medium length iodine and charred drift wood linger on the palate.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Eating a platter of Greek-Japanese fusion cuisine along the sea shore.

Something Better : Douglas Laing’s Rock Oyster 18 Year (more balanced, similar iodine/swamp)

Something Similar : Paul John Peated Select (similar earthen oven, more oily, less salty/maritime)

Something Worse : Jura Superstition (similar brine/fish/cheese funk, bit less body, sweeter)

Notes :  Savory, funky, but intensely maritime.

I love the funky profile of Ledaig.  This is the perfect dram to sit back with and explore the layers of funky umami that just roll out.  It is savory and salty with just enough sweet wood spices to keep you looking, trying to figure out how to describe the profile.   It is intense, but not overwhelming, and the addition of water helps to bring out some of the more nuanced maritime flavors over the smoke.

This was perhaps one of the first intensely coastal drams I ever had.  Returning to it a year later, it is still excellent.  Though salty sea spray notes are not necessarily restricted to island distilleries, it does seem one of the most reliable places to find it. The refill hogshead this was aged in provides just enough wood influence without overwhelming or drowning the coastal influence or the chewy peat influence.  If this dram had any major weakness it would be in the finish which is a bit on the shorter side.