Ledaig 42 Dùsgadh Review

Hi everyone,

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Lot been going on in my life and just have not found the motivation to write anything much about whisky.

However, I’m going to try and make more of concerted effort to keep posting reviews and helpful articles because there’s still stuff to taste and talk about and, hell, I enjoy it.

Many, many thanks go to u/UncleBaldric for the sample of this elusive dram!

 

So, this could be considered something of a white whale for me. I love Ledaig, it’s no secret, and yet I have never even seen a bottle of this open. Perhaps that’s got something to do with the fact that it’s the oldest and most expensive Ledaig ever bottled.

I had a very wonderful thing to celebrate in August last year, the birth of my first child. This was the dram I saved as something truly special to taste at the time.

In a world that seems increasingly confusing and chaotic, it is a comfort to take the time to sit with such a whisky. To sit, to be still, and, in a way, to fall into the glass…

 

Ledaig 42 Dùsgadh 46.7%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: There’s an entire world in here. Deep, rich and complex. The peat is well intact with medicinal notes of Calpol, tintures of old oils and medicinal things that have long past their use by date, old petrol soaked rags, kerosene, very old Jamacian rum, sea water, samphire, bandages, old sticking plasters. The Sherry comes in with a wave of dark fruit, raisin and figs, Christmas pudding, cinnamon, saffron, toffee apple and a touch of wild strawberry, lavender, some wood smoke. Developing into the most amazing and exotic dark chocolate money can buy. Oh, and add exotic black coffee too. There's so many layers to this and its constantly evolving and changing in wonderful ways. Beautiful, layered nose.

Taste: Soft and sweet arrival, lacking a touch of power to begin with before the peat comes in, very softly with coal dust, burnt paper, ash, some soft florals, a touch of lavender. Of course there's some oak but it's restrained for 42yo, some rich spices with saffron. Really chewy mouthfeel. Though the nose felt like it was more about the smoke, this is more about the Sherry I would say. Tobacco and dark chocolate going into the finish.

Finish: Long/Very Long length. More of the smoke here, plenty of tobacco, raisin, coals, even some blackberry actually. Then more drying oak and some very soft spice. Really long but very soft finish.

Distilled 1972, Gonzales Byass Oloroso Sherry finish from 2001 and bottled 2014. Dùsgadh means Awakening. Really very special stuff. I could nose this for hours! Having said that, this suffers from a very minor floral/soapy note that I've found in 1972 Tobermory's from Sherry casks too.

89/100

 

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #865

Whisky Network Review #1039

Network Average: 75.2

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.

Why is this here?

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

Updated Distillery Rankings

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.

Why is this here?

Ledaigathon: 1994 G&M, 20 Cadenhead's, SMWS 42.22 & 42.21, 2008 Archives Reviews

Hi everyone,

A while back, um, at the beginning of May, I was in Canada for work and was able to meet up with the wonderful people of the Toronto whisky society. What follows are reviews that are their fault.

Knowing that I loved Ledaig, they’d secured as many as they could and greeting me on the table were a row of them. Of course, I felt obliged to review them (Its a hard life sometimes), although I didn’t get to them all because I wanted to try other stuff too.

Thanks to everyone for an amazing night!

Ledaig 1994 Gordon & MacPhail 53.9%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Ah yes, clearly not Ledaig just as we expected after the other 1994 G&M. Clean with ozone, salt, green apple and a little cheese, some seaweed, light on the complexity.

Taste: Soft then spicy, ginger and black pepper, salt coming in, dried seaweed, losing power into the finish.

Finish: Short length. Lacking power here, very soft salt, ill fitting dry oak. Doesn't really work.

Bottled 2012. Mislabelled Tobermory again. The second time I've had this from G&M which makes me distrust all early 90's Ledaig.

71/100

 

Ledaig 1997 Cadenhead's 52.8%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Lovely complexity of lemon, aged smoke, epically oily, buttery but also salt crusted sailing ropes, leather and a little green grape.

Taste: So so oily, salt and smoke building up, spicy black pepper, white pepper, great leather and chocolate coming in.

Finish: Long length. Power, white pepper, mineral smoke, a white wine thing going on which is cool.

Gold label, 20yo. Very similar to the 19yo that I have a bottle of, but I prefer that one by a point I think.

85/100

 

Ledaig 2006 42.22 SMWS 59.3%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: Very clean nose, a little abv, pure salt and white pepper, lemon juice, not a huge amount there but very pure and clean.

Taste: Soft, then a great balance of pure salt and white pepper, lemon juice and stem ginger. Again, compelxity isn't massive but the balance and purity is super impressive.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Salty and spicy, stem ginger and white pepper.

9yo.

78/100

 

Ledaig 2006 42.21 SMWS 59.4%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Even cleaner and lighter... As in water. A tiny bit of green apple, a tiny bit of salt, Tequila.

Taste: Soft arrival, great saltiness, great balance again with the smoke, minerality, raw ginger and white pepper.

Finish: Medium length. Clean again, a little ginger and white pepper left.

I prefer the nose on this actually than the 42.22, but the taste isn't as good.

77/100

 

Ledaig 2008 Archives 60.9%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Dirty AF, burnt bacon, creamy vanilla, not a huge amount of smoke but a great balance, white german sausage, smoked sausage. Lots of sausage. Very savoury nose.

Taste: Clean arrival, great balance, salty, the Sherry comes through with dirty raisin, unami, bacon, so oily, mouthfeel for days.

Finish: Medium length. Creamy, sweet raisin and more overt peat.

Bottled 2016 I think, from a Sherry cask. Fan-fucking-tastic young Ledaig. Love it. Should have bought one when I had the chance.

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #779-#783

Whisky Network Reviews #924-#928

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.

Why is this here?

Ledaig 12 Present Future & 19 PX Finish Reviews

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of activity on my front, just being lazy I’m afraid. But today we are back with two awesome Ledaig’s. Yes, more Ledaig. I’ve got loads and I’m always trying more!

Both of these have used Sherry in the maturation, which we know works well with Ledaig but we have an indie and official. Let’s see how they compare…

Ledaig 12 Present Future The Whisky Exchange Show 58.4%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: WAHH! That's what we love! Big dirty Ledaig. Red fruit and red meat, black pepper, beautifully balanced nose, complex and sexy. Fresh cherry and black cherry lifting the whole.

Taste: Full but with a soft arrival, red fruit, big spice, dirty, malt and black pepper, ash and soot, complex, cherry coming in. Oily for days.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Black pepper, red meat, really oily. Like REALLY! AMAZING.

Nose is the star here but its all great of course. For TWE Show's 10th anniversary. I think this is Signatory stock that whisky exchange have bought. I bought a bottle of this, which doesn’t happen often these days. Also… HOLOGRAM LABEL!

86/100

 

Ledaig 19 PX Finish 55.7%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Meaty, creamy, cherry, pomegranate, fragrant orange peel. Raw steak and green peppercorns. Not as complex as the full sherry matured stuff.

Taste: Dry start, mineral, pomegranate, Mezcal into the finish. Not nearly as sweet as I had expected.

Finish: Long length. More spices here, ginger, black pepper.

On the expensive side for Ledaig at £150. A little dry for my tastes although specs looked like exactly the whisky I love.

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated distillery rankings

Scotch Reviews #777-#778

Whisky Network Reviews #922-#923

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.

Why is this here?

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!

Updated Distillery Rankings

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.

Why is this here?

3x older Ledaig's: 1993, 1994 & 1997 Reviews

Hi everyone,

The heavily peated Ledaig wasn’t officially re-produced until 1996, meaning that there isn’t a huge amount of the older stuff out there.

What there is is sometimes mislabelled Tobermory, and at other times, only lightly peated. Here’s a few today that I’ve tasted recently.

Ledaig 1993 Wilson & Morgan 51%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: The smoke has had time to oxidise giving it more fruit- More like a Talisker really, red apple, black pepper, sea salt, some orange, smoke backing it all, nicely balanced. More funky with time, some cheddar cheese, something slightly savoury.

Taste: Sharp and sour start, acidic red apple and spiky oak, green and black peppercorns, again quite Talisker-like, quite spicy, maritime smoke and sea salt and lemon.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Power gone completely, a little red apple, dry oak and spice left. Bit of a disappointing finish.

Bottled 2018 at 25yo. A Ledaig in my year! Could easily be an old Talisker. Great nose but it gets more and more tired as the taste goes on.

74/100

 

Ledaig 1994 Gordon & Macphail 47.1%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Lemon, grapefruit and sea salt, ozone, a little light cherry and some light cheese lurking in the background, rock pools and sea wind, gives a sense of open space.

Taste: A little weak to start, salt and lemon, grapefruit and cherry, then it gets going with dirty soot and orange, very oily, funk-mozzarella?, green olives and brine.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Fades quite quickly with some salted chocolate, black pepper and green olives.

Bottled 2017 as an exclusive for Germany. Unpeated Ledaig the rep told me... Soooo NOT Ledaig then?

75/100

Ledaig 1997 Cadenhead's 53.9%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Salinity at first nosing. Sea salt, coastal with a far off beach bonfire, oysters, grilled prawns and green olive. Also leather and classy oak, chocolate powder. A little more chocolatey over time with milk chocolate and praline. Very nice and really interesting nose. Not full of the usual Ledaig powerful smoke, but more restrained.

Water: Fresher, more coastal, oily and a little fresh rubber. Pencil eraser. Not such a fan of this style, preferred it neat.

Taste: Citrus arrival, lemon and then a wonderful transition into a more active development. More of that citrus, lemon, orange and lime juice all mixed together, some smoke but more complex coastal flavours coming through. A little green olive, sea salt, salt rimmed margarita. Oily.

Water: Softer and less citric, less acidity, builds slowly with some lemon, earthy notes, some vanilla, leather, then more and more salty with that salt rimmed margarita.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Oily citrus juice continues then more gristy malt and leathery smoke.

Aged 19 years, from a Bourbon hogshead. Better neat IMO. So glad I bought a bottle of this when I spied it in the Netherlands.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #740-#742

Whisky Network Reviews #878-#880

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.

Why is this here?