This 13 year old Ledaig has spent its life in a single sherry butt (#900174) before being bottled under The Whisky Exchange’s relatively new namesake independent bottling label. The type of butt is unspecified, but it feels to me to be a high quality (still active) oloroso refill rather than a 1st fill. 622 bottles have been produced at 57.4% ABV and are available at a cost of £94.95 each from The Whisky Exchange.
Nose: Immediate tar and bitumen road surfacing, alongside felt roofing and aspects of treated bandages and hospital antiseptic. Brown sugars sit with chocolate cake, topped with lemon peels and shaved zest, whilst ‘greenhouse’ aromas of warmed fruits and leafy vines mingle with damp hay and burnt pan oils. Reduction adds a sense of brightness with crystalline and preserved lemons, cocktail cherries and After Eight mints.
Taste: Voluminous and robust with coal dust, laden ashtrays and dry mentholated smokiness. Chocolate dipped cherries and freshly squeezed lime juice mingle with a selection of orchard and berry fruits before reverting to burnt toffee and Vicks Vaporub. Water adds apple slices and hearth sootiness alongside tree resin, potpourri and increasingly medicinal peat smoke.
Finish: Long with jammy red berries, bituminous smoke, gravel and a minty-fresh last hurrah.
Evocative Ledaig which ably shows off both the distillate and the sherry cask – with neither feeling overpowered. Integrated, layered and responding well to the addition of water. All in all quite delicious and easy to recommend.
It’s worth noting that this not nearly as left-field (meaty/fishing/rubbery etc) as Ledaig can be. Similarly, this particularly bottling offers a more controlled take on peat vs. sherry than other recent expressions – that’s not to say it’s quiet. Far from it. But it’s not a high pitched 1st fill uproar either.