Hi everyone,
A while back, um, at the beginning of May, I was in Canada for work and was able to meet up with the wonderful people of the Toronto whisky society. What follows are reviews that are their fault.
Knowing that I loved Ledaig, they’d secured as many as they could and greeting me on the table were a row of them. Of course, I felt obliged to review them (Its a hard life sometimes), although I didn’t get to them all because I wanted to try other stuff too.
Thanks to everyone for an amazing night!
Ledaig 1994 Gordon & MacPhail 53.9%
Colour: Straw
Body: Medium
Nose: Ah yes, clearly not Ledaig just as we expected after the other 1994 G&M. Clean with ozone, salt, green apple and a little cheese, some seaweed, light on the complexity.
Taste: Soft then spicy, ginger and black pepper, salt coming in, dried seaweed, losing power into the finish.
Finish: Short length. Lacking power here, very soft salt, ill fitting dry oak. Doesn't really work.
Bottled 2012. Mislabelled Tobermory again. The second time I've had this from G&M which makes me distrust all early 90's Ledaig.
71/100
Ledaig 1997 Cadenhead's 52.8%
Colour: Gold
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: Lovely complexity of lemon, aged smoke, epically oily, buttery but also salt crusted sailing ropes, leather and a little green grape.
Taste: So so oily, salt and smoke building up, spicy black pepper, white pepper, great leather and chocolate coming in.
Finish: Long length. Power, white pepper, mineral smoke, a white wine thing going on which is cool.
Gold label, 20yo. Very similar to the 19yo that I have a bottle of, but I prefer that one by a point I think.
85/100
Ledaig 2006 42.22 SMWS 59.3%
Colour: Straw
Body: Full
Nose: Very clean nose, a little abv, pure salt and white pepper, lemon juice, not a huge amount there but very pure and clean.
Taste: Soft, then a great balance of pure salt and white pepper, lemon juice and stem ginger. Again, compelxity isn't massive but the balance and purity is super impressive.
Finish: Medium/Long length. Salty and spicy, stem ginger and white pepper.
9yo.
78/100
Ledaig 2006 42.21 SMWS 59.4%
Colour: Light Straw
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: Even cleaner and lighter... As in water. A tiny bit of green apple, a tiny bit of salt, Tequila.
Taste: Soft arrival, great saltiness, great balance again with the smoke, minerality, raw ginger and white pepper.
Finish: Medium length. Clean again, a little ginger and white pepper left.
I prefer the nose on this actually than the 42.22, but the taste isn't as good.
77/100
Ledaig 2008 Archives 60.9%
Colour: Gold
Body: Full
Nose: Dirty AF, burnt bacon, creamy vanilla, not a huge amount of smoke but a great balance, white german sausage, smoked sausage. Lots of sausage. Very savoury nose.
Taste: Clean arrival, great balance, salty, the Sherry comes through with dirty raisin, unami, bacon, so oily, mouthfeel for days.
Finish: Medium length. Creamy, sweet raisin and more overt peat.
Bottled 2016 I think, from a Sherry cask. Fan-fucking-tastic young Ledaig. Love it. Should have bought one when I had the chance.
84/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Reviews #779-#783
Whisky Network Reviews #924-#928
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.
