Hi everyone,
As you can imagine, I have quite a few Ledaig reviews in the pipeline, mostly because I don’t want to bombard you with them all at once but I’ve got two today that it makes sense to post together as they are both from the same bottler, recent and still available.
If you didn’t know, Douglas Laing’s Old Particular range have two different strengths; the younger, less expensive ones are bottled at 48.4% and the older and more expensive at 51.5% or cask if they’re under that, therefore the different strengths on these.
Ledaig 2001 Douglas Laing 48.4%
Colour: Gold
Body: Medium
Nose: Ah, a good one. A funky and slightly rancid but delicious sweetness, rotting orange, cigarette smoke, creamy, vanilla and peaches.
Taste: Lacking a bit of power, orange then building smoke, ashes. Quite oaky and spicy here as it develops but doesn’t quite balance with the rest.
Finish: Medium length. More chocolate orange, dry oak. A distinct lack of smoke here.
15yo. Lovely nose but a disappointing palate. Can't help but think this would have been better kept at cask strength, as we encountered with the other Old Particular Ledaig I’d had.
73/100
Ledaig 1997 Douglas Laing 50.6%
Colour: Light Gold
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: Pork crackling, gristy smoke, lemon citrus and sea salt, white sausage and some nice smoked cheese, very savoury nose. Ash and clean peat smoke, sugared almonds.
Taste: Lovely clean arrival, amazingly oily mouthfeel, some drying oak, easy ginger spice, peat, sea salt and lemon, slightly fizzy- lemon sherbet.
Finish: Long length. More peaty with some minerals, lemon and salt. Some black pepper. Talikserishness.
Released 2018 at 21yo. Lovely, a good one from the older ones. Really love the nose because it’s delicious and savoury. Still, not quite up there with the best of them. Still, these older Ledaig’s do seem to struggle to retain the complexity and purity of their youth.
79/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Reviews #711-#712
Whisky Network Reviews #848-#849
Network Average: 75.1
Best Score: 94
Worst Score: 12
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
Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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