Ledaig 1998 Cooper's Choice Sherry Cask Review

Hello again,

Another great Sherried peaty whisky to make you salivate today. It’s heavily peated whisky from Tobermory distillery, which makes it Ledaig.

Ledaig has been building a solid fan base recently I’ve noticed, mostly because I’ve become a part of it. It’s seriously grea…. Um, terrible. Just awful whisky. You should stay away from it really. It’s rubbery, meaty, gritty and there’s often a note of horse shit. Nope, you won’t like it.

Ledaig 1998 Cooper's Choice 56.5%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Really wonderful mix of sweet Sherry and dirty smoke. A clean sweetness, earthy malt, coal, inner tube rubber, a biscuity shortbread note, oily, jelly baby, slightly meaty, venison?, black pepper, charred steak, some sulphurous smoke, almost volcanic? Juicy fig, pomegranate and grapefruit bring a freshness into the mix, cola bottle sweets.

Water: Notes meld together and balance well. Less overt smoke and earthy/dirty notes, more discrete oak with freshly sawn oak and sandalwood. More of the farmy notes with stables, manure and hay. Orange chewing gum.

Taste: Clean arrival with lots of cherry, black cherry, cola bottle sweets, very intense development, mineral stoniness, dark raisin and fig, oily Sherry, earthy smoke, dirty, soiled hay?, sulphurous smoke, smoky malt, lots of black pepper building, the unami notes are back with a charred steak note into the finish.

Water: Softer, builds beautifully. Sweetness starts with the Sherry, spicy oak, white pepper, overt peat, smoky malt, sulphurous smoke, orange citrus and a big black liquorice note. Black pepper leads into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Very oily, ashy, earthy, some Sherry sweetness. Better with water, with a savoury smoke and lovely sweetness. Liquorice again.

Masterful. A huge dirty whisky with character for days.

88/100

At £90, maybe I should have bought 2 bottles and saved you from having to taste this disgusting stuff.

This bottling is actually a great example of ‘good’ Sulphur in a whisky, which I was talking about the other day. Really pulls it off.

Thanks for reading!

Review #302

Network Average: 74.9

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just about OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent