Whisky: Ledaig 25 Year (1998) Distillery Handfill

Country/Region: Scotland/Islands

ABV: 53.1%

Cask: Sherry

Age: 25 Years (Distilled 9 July 1998, Bottled Oct. 2023)

Nose: Dirty and industrial, race carts, rubber, cheese caves, car exhaust, brine; smoked fruits eventually.

Palate: Medium-bodied and oily, minerals and brine, cherries, motor carts, rubber, hints of asphalt, industrial, lemon and brine, more barbecue toward the end.

Finish: Long and warming with stewed fruit, metallic smoke, and charred wood.

Score: 8-9 (89)

Mental Image: Mario Kart Winner’s Banquet

Narrative & Notes: Filthy and dirty like a motor cart speedway in an old cheese cave— rubber, exhaust, oil, and well-aged gouda. A touch of aged cheese funk and rind popped with salt and calcium lactate crystals while smoked fruit spreads lingered further in. Medium-bodied and oily, the flavor profile was dirty and mineral like tar sands and sea shells with hints of cherry preserves. Shifting in gear, the flavors moved back to the motor cart speedway— is this what Mario Kart tastes like? Coastal and dirty with rubber, shop rags, and cleaning solvents offering up pine and lemon to strip away oily stains. Barbecue notes appeared with sweet roasted meats in a freshly paved parking lot.  The finish was long and warming with stewed fruits, sweet metallic smoke, and charred wood.

Wow— this was fabulously dirty and rich with a wonderful evolution from sea shore to carpark, from cheese cave to barbecue. This was indulgent and incredibly robust considering the quarter century it spent in the cask. It was a wonderful example of the super peaty malt produced at the distillery in the late nineties as they gradually dialed in production to what we now know and love as Ledaig.

Overall, a bruiser with depth.

Image Credit: Wild about Argyll (Definitely plan a trip if you can!)