Whisky: Ledaig 29 Year (1993), The Single Cask Ltd. Cask 247

Country/Region: Scotland/Island

ABV: 44.9%

Cask: Hogshead

Age: 29 Years (Distilled 5 Mar. 1993, Bottled 28 April 2022)

Nose: Light and delicate, waxy citrus rind, mellow maritime, dry grass, sea shell, hints of sweet fish.

Palate: Light-bodied, very waxy, paraffin, mellow salt and seashell, citrus, dry beach vegetation, flax twine.

Finish: Long and lingering with citrusy lemon, yuzu, a kiss of salt, and a hint of melon.

Score: 7

Mental Image: Lo-Fi Aesthetics

Narrative & Notes: The aroma was light and delicate, with waxy citrus rinds and a mellow maritime breeze carrying the scent of salt, minerals, and dried beachgrass. Sweet yuzu and sea shells dominated over hints of sweet imitation crab or kamaboko. Light-bodied and very waxy, the flavor profile featured a mellow sweet maritime panoply of salt, seashell, beach grass, and dried palm fronds. Paraffin wax coasted the palate as more mellow notions of boiled peanut, dried herbs and flowers, and flax twine lingered with a faint bitterness at the end. The finish was long and lingering with citrusy lemon, yuzu, a kiss of salt, and a hint of melon.

A Ledaig with an identity crisis— what happens with your Ledaig thinks it is a Clynelish? This.

My good buddy at Aloha Whisky Bar in Japan remarked that if I tried any of the 29-Year Ledaig at the Single Cask Singapore, this is the one he would recommend. He described it as the gateway bottle through which he fell in love with the rarely bottled unpeated style of Ledaig. That might seem contradictory, but unpeated Ledaig was unpeated malt fermented and distilled as if it were Ledaig rather than Tobermory. While it is typically sold as blending stock, a fair number of barrels ended up in the hands of brokers and independent bottlers when casks were mislabeled or misplaced during the first three years or so of restructuring after Burn Stewart purchased the distillery in 1993. Burn Stewart was then bought by CL Financial in 2002 and, finally, Distell in 2013.

With these old casks, there is sometimes confusion over whether the spirit is regular Ledaig or unpeated Ledaig due to the mislabeling and the fact that Ledaig of the era was less peated than today. It was a time of flux at a distillery that had already been dealing with sporadic identity changes for several decades. By the end of the nineties, we reached something closer to what we might recognize today— a distillery named Tobermory producing two distinct malts, the unpeated Tobermory and the peatier Ledaig.

I can see why my buddy rated this whisky so highly and recommended it so strongly. It was subtle and light, with a beautifully waxy profile and more subtle layers of dried grass, herbs, and maritime brine. It almost felt like a well-composed blend than a single malt.