Ledaig 12yo Cask Strength (Signatory Vintage) Whisky Review!

A big, dirty, unapologetic whisky from a single refill sherry butt, made by one of the kings of big, dirty, unapologetic whisky!

Ledaig is the peated whisky produced by Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull, off Scotland's west coast. While the standard range of the 10-year old and 18-year old Ledaigs are very enjoyable whiskies - and the 10-year old in particular offers excellent value for money - this whisky really comes into it's own when bottled at cask strength, and even more so when it's spent some time in sherry casks. Tobermory does offer a decent range of higher strength bottlings, often finished or matured in unusual cask types, but they're very hard to find in Australia. More like impossible, actually. So where do we turn for our Ledaig fixes? Straight to the independent bottlers, of course! Bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail, North Star, Cadenhead's and many other smaller companies release quite a lot of Ledaig, and along with Caol Ila it would have to be one of the more numerous independently bottled peated whiskies. The unusual thing there is that while Caol Ila is a large workhorse of a distillery, owned by Diageo and mostly producing spirit that is destined for blended whiskies, Tobermory is a small distillery - capable of less than a quarter of Caol Ila's annual production capacity - owned by a smaller corporation (Distell) that isn't quite as prevalent in blended whiskies. Adding to that is the fact that Tobermory produces two different spirits (and also a gin, but we'll ignore that); an unpeated spirit labelled under the distillery name, and peated spirit labelled as Ledaig, so there can't be a huge amount of their peated spirit leaving their four pot stills every year. 

Ledaig, meaning "safe haven" in Gaelic, was actually the distillery's original name, and is also the name given to the town of Tobermory's harbour where the distillery is located. Like their Distell stablemates Deanston and Bunnahabhain they've stepped up their game over the last decade or so, with the move to a minimum bottling strength of 46.3% ABV, and never chill filtering or artificially colouring their single malts for a more natural presentation. They're also releasing a multitude of exotic cask finishings from the likes of wine casks, less common varieties of sherry casks, and a number of distillery exclusives and even hand-filled cask strength bottlings. I was lucky enough to pick up two brilliant examples from Tobermory during my visit back in 2018, which were a 10-year old Bordeaux wine cask Tobermory and a 14-year old Oloroso cask Ledaig - both were exceptional, and I wish I'd bought multiples! Unfortunately most of Tobermory's production is matured on the Scottish mainland, since the original warehouses were sold off and converted into apartments during the distillery's tumultuous past - more than half of it's 200+ year history has been spent with the doors closed. There are still some casks maturing on-site in a small 'warehouse', most of which are understandably reserved for older, more limited releases and the distillery exclusive bottlings since cask space is at such a premium. It must be said though that their other bottlings don't seem to suffer too drastically from this geographical relocation, possibly since the spirit itself is so powerful - some might even call it pungent - to begin with. 

This particular Ledaig is a 12-year old single cask bottling from Signatory Vintage, so it will most likely have been matured at Edradour Distillery north of Edinburgh. It has been fully matured in a single refill Oloroso sherry butt (500-litre cask) and was bottled at a cask strength of 59.8%. It's still readily available in Australia and has been for some time now, selling for around $250 AUD, which although verging on the high-side is not unreasonable for a cask strength single cask. Signatory have an excellent track record with sherry cask Ledaigs, based on a run of excellent 10-11 year old first-fill sherry casks that were released a few years ago. This bottling is a refill cask though, so there's going to be less sherry influence and more spirit / distillery character showing through - don't take that to mean that it won't be as flavoursome as those first-fill casks though; Ledaig is not a shy spirit, and it's almost never short on character! In fact with the right spirit and the right distillery refill casks often work better than equivalent first-fill casks would, since they allow more of the distillery character to show through and aren't as assertive. There are plenty of examples (usually single casks from various independent bottlers) where a first-fill sherry cask will overwhelm the spirit completely, even when filled with heavily peated spirit and bottled at a relatively young age, which will result in a generic 'sherry bomb' that has lost most of it's character. And that's always a sad thing to see / smell / taste. But it's safe to say that will not going to be the case here!

Signatory Vintage Ledaig 12-year old, refill sherry cask, 59.8%. Mull, Scotland.

Single cask #700555, refill Oloroso sherry butt. Distilled 6/2007, bottled 2/2020. 604 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Pale amber. 

Nose: Lovely dirty Ledaig. Lanolin balm (sheep's wool oil), muddy farmyards, machine oil and fried greasy bacon. Sweet dried berries and stewed stone fruit, but served in chilli oil rather than juice or syrup! Muddy, dank peat with a little spirit-y alcohol nip - but Ledaig isn't known for it's gentleness! 

Texture: Medium weight. Very oily, and not as dirty or funky as the nose suggested. A little heat, but it works. 

Taste: Sweet stone fruit - peach and nectarine, and still in chilli oil, with some black pepper thrown in. Ashy hot smoke, more lanolin balm / oil, and a touch of that fried greasy bacon. Yes there's a little heat, but it's not enough to be distracting. 

Finish: Long length. Spiced sweet caramel (spiced with cloves), chilli oil and ashy hot smoke again. Muddy, dank peat, and a little spicy & nutty oak in the background. A touch of dark chocolate and some old rubber, and muddy peat 'til the end.  

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: A great Ledaig that shows more of the distillery character and spirit character than the first-fill cask maturations / finishes tend to. And there's plenty of sweetness, farmyard-y funk and dank-ness on show - like Port Charlotte's northern cousin, who's had a more modest upbringing! This Signatory bottling has been well-chosen to show the typical Ledaig style, but in a more balanced fashion that it often is - balanced between spirit & cask, that is. Particularly compared to some of the official bottlings that have had more complicated cask regimens thrust upon them - although that often works to great effect as well, Ledaig is quite versatile! If you're a fan of this dirty-yet-sweet, rough-around-the-edges style of whisky, this single cask will be right up your alley. Plenty of punch and plenty of character, and the bottle has sweetened, relaxed and opened-up nicely with a decent amount of breathing time. 

Well done to The Whisky Company for getting their hands on a good amount of this cask. It's easier to get a hold of than the cask strength official bottlings are (in Australia), and it's always hard to go past the Signatory Cask Strength 'decanter style' bottles - although pretty as they are, they're painful to pour from!

Cheers!