Ledaig 10 Year Old

After having bought a bottle of the new Tobermory 10 i decided that, when going for my second bottle, that i should take with me it's peated brother: Ledaig 10 year old.

It has got the same new, fresh, craft presentation as it's Tobermory sibling, except the glass is clear. The Ledaig is slightly darker in color, as far as the spirit goes, so despite the absence of the attractive green hue it still looks good. This is very much due to the shape of the bottle, which i do appreciate a lot, it's an attractive little so&so.

I tasted the non-age statement Ledaig a few years back, and it was a good bang-for-your-buck peated whisky, i do recognize some traces of that peat in here, albeit faint. The peat in the non-age statement was more "farmyard" in it's nature while this new one is more.. well i'll get to that now.

Nose: Earthy peat with lemon tart and marmelade. A hint of soot, charcoal and chemical iodine note (not unpleasant). Green apples and hickory.

Palate: Subtle peat with sour cream. Slight barbecue smoke, gaining more and more intensity with sage and white pepper. A very interesting bruschetta note and garlic coming through from the peat and barbecue smoke... Nice! Zesty orange and a slight vegetal hay note (accentuating on "vegetal").

Finish: The earthy peat comes back with some citrus as well as a reminiscence of the vegetal hay note, for a medium but sustained high-quality finish.

So it does get a slight hint of that farmyard note that was in the previous ledaig, but this very dense earthy peat, that then alleviates to some very good "natural" barbecue smells, has it's own tale to tell. The bruschetta note (for those of you who aren't familiar, bruschettas are delicious heavily toasted garlic bread appetizers with sliced tomatoes) really struck a light with me, it was more than just a hint as well, it was actually very pronounced.

This single-malt probably won't convert many of the islay-philes out there but it makes a good case for itself by being individual, different, a bit left-field, and of very good quality. Additionally, as you might have guessed, a very good barbecue peaty whisky. Here's to Tobermory!

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