Monday 4 November 2019

Four More Ledaig's: 2010 The Ultimate, 2007 Whisky Mercenary, 2004 SMOS & 2001 MMD Reviews

Hi everyone,

Now I know what you’re thinking; hasn't this guy tried all the Ledaig in the world yet? Does he really need to taste more?
The answer is no and yes respectively. There is always more Ledaig being released and I love trying it. Its fun whisky and there’s some absolute gems.

Ledaig 2010 The Ultimate 46%
Colour: Straw
Body: Medium
Nose: Light, musky, some light fruit, lemon and gristy smoke.
Taste: Some fruit to start, lemon citrus then smoke develops with malt and light white pepper then lots of sea salt into the finish.
Finish: Short/Medium length. A salty tang.
Bottled Feb 2017 at 6yo.
70/100

Ledaig 2007 Whisky Mercenary 51.5%
Colour: Straw
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: A little cheese at first but now very clean, sea salt and praline chocolates, hazelnut, straw, a little engine oil, very delicate malt. Quite an easy,, pleasant Ledaig on the nose. Takes some coaxing to open up.
Taste: Amazing arrival on great immediate complexity, sweet and salty, then more malty and chocolatey, clean lemon juice, salt crusted Margarita, a little Tequila into the finish.
Finish: Medium/Long length. Great finish, fading with salt, lemon and oils. Clean as a blade.
Bottled 2017. These casks are so good. Very nice one from Jurgen!
82/100
 
Ledaig 2004 Single Malts of Scotland 56.2%
Colour: Straw
Body: Full
Nose: Soldering iron! Salty, meaty and gristy from the off, at the same time clean with a slight soap, some vanilla, lemon. More soap as it opens up, vanilla ice cream.
Taste: Clean arrival, salinity builds, sea water, some lemon and vanilla but its out of balance. Slightly harsh in the mouth too.
Finish: Medium length. Even more salt! If that's possible, along with some meatiness. Marshmallow? Again, out of balance and a slightly weird mix of flavours.
Bottled at 14yo as an exclusive for The Nectar. Nose is nice at times but this is all over the place on the palate.
68/100
 
Ledaig 2001 Murray McDavid 59%
Colour: Dark Amber, redish tint
Body: Full
Nose: You can smell the madness of Jim McEwen. Not much smoke, passion fruit pavlova, orange juice, earthy funk, marshmallow?, a weird beast of a nose, some abv/nose prickle.
Taste: Softer than the nose suggested then lots of power, earthy peat, spicy oak, black pepper, passionfruit, stem ginger, hot spicy with chilli, really spicy actually.
Finish: Medium length. More peaty again,with some minerality, chilli and ginger.
17yo. Bourbon hogshead into Sherry into sweet wine cask. Powerful but out of balance and all over the place.
75/100


Scotch Reviews #805-#808
Whisky Network Reviews #959-#962

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 the Global 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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