This nondescript little 200ml bottle was a must-buy on my second pilgrimage to Scotland, which included a trip to the Isle of Mull and of course it's only distillery, Tobermory. After nosing and tasting this one I couldn't leave without it, but I should've bought a dozen. Not that I had the luggage space or weight allowance to do so, of course, but you get my point! I've previously reviewed the second cask sample that they had for sale at the time, a red wine cask-matured Tobermory, here, and it was brilliant as well, although completely different in character of course. It was very fruity, sweet and high strength at 62%, while this Ledaig is more mellow, but deeper and darker in character. The distillery was in the midst of it's two-year production shutdown at the time of our visit, which involved a lot of major maintenance, including replacing two of the stills and four of their wooden washbacks. In fact the distillery only resumed production earlier this year, and they're still planning to replace their other two stills - this time without shutting down completely. While it's never quite the same to visit a distillery during what they call "silent season" when they aren't producing spirit, Tobermory were still open for tours and tastings, so not all was lost and it was definitely worth the half-hour ferry trip from Oban. In fact the island and the namesake town of Tobermory, complete with it's famous multi-coloured houses around the harbour, were well worth the trip on their own, even without the resident distillery taken into account!
Tobermory Distillery is in the area of the town previously-named Ledaig (pronounced "Le-Chayg" or "Le-Chig"), and the distillery originally bore the same name from 1798 (although it wasn't officially licensed until 1823) all the way through to 1979, when it was re-named Tobermory. It's not quite that simple though, because this distillery has been through some very rough patches in it's 220-year history. In fact it has been shut down / mothballed for almost half of it's life! It first closed in 1837, not even 40 years after being founded and only 14 after being licensed, and was closed for a whopping 41 years. It was then purchased by DCL, a precursor of today's Diageo, in 1916, who then also closed it down for another 40 year period in 1930, before being purchased by a shipping conglomerate in 1972 who went bankrupt three years later. The distillery was then purchased by a property group who re-opened it under the name Tobermory, but that only lasted three years, subsequently closing again for another 11 years and resulting in the distillery warehouses being converted into apartments. You certainly would not have wanted to be a distillery employee during those times! Thankfully Burn Stewart purchased the distillery in 1993, giving some much-needed stability, and since the purchase of that company by South African corporation Distell in 2013 it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. In fact Distell seem to be heavily investing in their three Scotch whisky distilleries (Deanston & Bunnahabhain being the others) with major repair, maintenance and general face-lifting work underway. Which in Bunnahabhain's case was very sorely needed!
The distillery re-vitalised the Ledaig name in 2007, giving the moniker to their peated spirit, while the un-peated brand remained Tobermory. If you were to look at all of that tumultuous history you could be forgiven for assuming that the distillery wasn't anything special, but that's certainly not the case. In fact if you ask me it's one of the best examples of an Island single malt with a nice coastal influence and weighty, almost "funky" & dirty spirit character, particularly in the case of the peated malts. Ledaig is peated to around 35 ppm on the malted barley, sourced from commercial maltings on the mainland, and is a worthy competitor for the peated malts coming from Islay. This particular Ledaig is a cask strength cask sample that has been fully-matured in a single first-fill Oloroso sherry cask for 14 years, before being bottled at 53.4% in late 2018. None of the single malts from Tobermory are chill filtered or artificially coloured, and this is no exception - great stuff! The Ledaig spirit seems to work very well with sherry casks, including the 18-year old official bottling (reviewed here) which is finished in Oloroso casks, and the best example that I've tasted to date would be this 10-year old cask strength single cask from Signatory Vintage. So let's see if this cask sample from the distillery can beat it!
Distillery exclusive 200ml hand-filled cask sample, fully-matured in a single Oloroso sherry cask, bottled late 2018. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.
Colour: Dark amber.
Nose: Dirty, funky Ledaig yummy-ness. Deep, muddy, damp peat, lanolin (sheepswool oil / grease), rum & raisin ice cream, engine oil & dirty old bearing grease - or even saw-blade oil-based coolant. Then lovely "rancio" (nutty, leathery, fermented / cured salami) old sherry. A nutty & crumbly vintage cheddar. Sweet & spicy cured pork and dusty, damp old wood - like a dirty old barnyard. Some dried raspberry & dark chocolate. Yes please!
Texture: Beautiful. Medium weight, ashy, dirty & muddy. No spirit-y heat at all.
Taste: Dirty, spicy & ashy. More deep, muddy peat, a few dirty old seashells, and more dark chocolate. Dry ashy & spicy smoke, more lovely nutty "rancio" old sherry & cured pork, more crumbly vintage cheddar, more dried raspberry and some sweet date syrup with a touch of sea salt. Again, yes please!
Finish: Long. A little liquorice and ginger spice behind that ashy & spicy smoke, then more lanolin, more old wooden farm buildings and dirty old grease. That muddy peat and sweet raisins again, plus some orange peel and engine oil.
Score: 4 out of 5.
Notes: Delicious dram. It does slightly remind me of the standard Ledaig 18-year old, but with more sherry and loads more "funk". This is easily one of the dirtiest Ledaigs that I've had in quite some time! That lanolin and farmyard note is very enjoyable, although this would not be a whisky for the newcomer - you need to be fan of the dirtier, more characterful malts to appreciate something like this Ledaig. This malt really does give you an image of an old sheep farm on a damp Hebridean island - like the Isle of Mull, for example! It could possibly be confused with a similarly-aged Longrow, which is high praise, but it's a little deeper & darker, and it's very well balanced between the muddy peat, dirty & funky farmyard notes and that great old sherry cask. If you're a fan of this style of malt, line up something like this Ledaig alongside a sherry-matured cask strength Longrow and a sherry-matured cask strength Benromach. I guarantee you'll be in for one hell of a ride!
I do wish sherry-matured Ledaigs were easier to come by, especially when served at cask strength, because they can be utterly fantastic. This really is an under-rated peated single malt that easily stands up to the heavyweights from Islay and Campbeltown. Unfortunately this is now the last liquid souvenir that I have from our trip to Mull, and yes, I definitely think I should've bought a dozen...
Cheers!
Great review - love that funky dirty oily flavour in a Ledaig, I lean towards the wine cask finishes from them.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree!
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