Wednesday 13 March 2019

Ledaig 2004 Blackadder, 2006 SMWS & 2007 SMC Reviews

Hi everyone,

More Ledaig?! Yes, always. There’s always more of them to try and we love to try and love trying to try and getting to try and all else besides.
Need we more introduction than that? No.

Ledaig 2004 Blackadder Raw Cask 60.8%
Colour: Light Gold
Body: Full
Nose: Oily and butter at first, but then a little tropical fruit (which is unusual), and a school rubber (eraser for those American’s) from your pencil case, alcohol hit from the abv.
Water: Woah, different. Floral, soap and lemonade. There's also some peach and apricot, peach yoghurt, funk. A mix of spice comes out too, dry oak, quite perfumed actually. Complex stuff.
Taste: Soft arrival, then really fills the mouth, some mango, very peaty, black pepper, a little school rubber, then malty and buttery with lemon, some mineral notes come in near the finish with chalk and salty rocks.
Water: Softer and better arrival, lovely intensity then with nice sharpness from lemon juice, white grape, oily smoke, salty.
Finish: Long length. Lovely. Great oilyness, buttery, sea salt and chocolate. Some salty fish with water.
Bottled 2015 at 10 years old. From a little 20cl bottle I picked up. Love the char floating around! Such a great gimmick.
83/100

Ledaig 2006 SMWS 42.27 59.4%
Smoked Aged Riesling
Colour: Straw
Body: Full
Nose: A very clean modern Ledaig. Salty sea spray and lemon citrus, powerful smoke lurking underneath ready to punch out, green apple and that gristy note I often find, like literally crushing a load of grist in your hands and smelling them.
Water: A little too clean and youthful for my tastes.
Taste: Surprisingly soft arrival, building this nice clean but powerful smoke, lemon citrus balancing and freshening it, green apple then that gristy note, very oily mouthfeel with a petrol-like note. Really follows the nose. More green apple into the finish.
Water: As with the nose, it becomes more clean and youthful. Lemon, green apple and salty smoke.
Finish: Medium length. A heady hit of petrol then green apple, sea salt and fading smoke.
Thanks to u/xile for this one. I love Riesling, so this one was awesome to try. There's moments of genius shining through here. Immaculately distilled spirit. But other moments of a spirity youthful whisky. I see where they got the Riesling reference now with the petrol coming through.
81/100

Ledaig 2007 Single Malt Circle 59.3%
Colour: Straw
Body: Full
Nose: Ethereal, oily and buttery. Peat smoke and malt but very maritime with sea salt, oysters and crushed seashells, candied lemon peel, ashes and soot.
Taste: AMAZING. Incredible arrival, super soft and clean, pure delicate crystalised lemon then very peaty and mineral, granite and salt, somewhere between Laphroaig and Kilchoman, crushed rocks.
Finish: Long length. More maritime and oily, some seaweed, sea salt crust.
Bottled 2018 at 11yo. Exclusively available in Germany at a good price. (Sobs into hands) I had a chance to buy a cask from the same batch of casks but didn't have the money (Yeah, I was buying a house… apparently having a roof over your head is more important than whisky). About as good as you get from Ledaig and Bourbon.
85/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #747-#749
Whisky Network Reviews #885-#887

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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