Ledaig 9 Year Old 2010 The Whisky Jury

Last summer I tried the first Ledaig bottled by Belgian bottler The Whisky Jury (the tasting notes are only just published, apologies), but here is Joeri with two new releases. This time it’s a former oloroso sherry cask that yielded 141 bottles available for the general public, while at the same time he launched a second cask – number 04014-2 – of a similar cask type and the same amount of bottles but with a slightly different ABV, exlusively for Angelo Jabob’s shop TastToe. Let’s start with cask 04014-1, because the ABV is slightly lower.

Ka-boom! I have only just put my nose in the glass and I’m sold already. Molded wood, chocolate, soot, smoked fish, butterscotch, ashes, toffee, oyster sap, vanilla… it goes up and down between de ontamed DNA of the house and the sweetness of the sherry cask. But after a bit of breathing it’s the sweetness in this Ledaig that starts to dominate, on this stunning nose.

It’s nicely creamy on the palate. Peat, citrus fruit (oranges), aniseed, mint, pepper, earth, vanilla, brackish water and chili pepper… it keeps going. Perfect strength by the way. The cask influence is more subtle than on the nose. The dirty character of the distillery stays in the lead. Wonderfully smoky.

Long, mildly drying finish with some soot at the death.

Ledaig as it should be. Good, smoky, a bit dirty and bursting with character. Sold!

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