Whisky Review: Ledaig 10 Year (Non Chill Filtered)

Ledaig (good luck figuring out how to pronounce it) is the peated whisky marque for Tobermory distillery. I've reviewed their unpeated Tobermory 10 expression before and found it to be quite tasty after airing out, so I was curious to find out how the peatier version stacked up.

I will admit that I opened the bottle with a bit of trepidation after reading some rather unfavorable reviews. Especially before it was reformulated into a higher strength, non chill filtered version, its reputation wasn't stellar. However, Burn Stewart seemed to be pushing to up the quality of their single malts, so I dove right in.

Ledaig 10 Year NCF

Nose: clearly first-fill bourbon - rich sweet caramel, earthy/vegetal peat, very fresh, salty - maritime/bready notes, clean malt, fruits (apples, pears, etc). After adding a few drops of water, it becomes drier and more malt-focused, with lighter and more vegetal peat, stronger salt/maritime notes, less fruit, but more vanilla and a bit of cacao.

Taste: clean sweetness throughout, a hefty dose of pepper quickly comes on top, edges of fruit and berries around the sweetness mid-palate, vegetal and smokey peat begins gently then grows towards the back, well-integrated oak and salt/maritime notes at the back. After dilution, it becomes less  sweet with much more pronounced bitter oak tannins and peat, the fruity edges attaches itself to the peat, there are some raisin, dark chocolate, and creamy bourbon barrel notes in the middle.

Finish: earthy, malty, pepper, peat, and oak tannins

In contrast to Tobermory 10, this Ledaig was actually more expressive right off the bat than after sitting for a few weeks. Initially there was a huge wash of bourbon barrel influence - caramel, sweet vanilla, etc. That died down a bit after it aired, but that character was definitely still present later. This was, at least to me, the key to this whisky. The peat clearly still has a very youthful quality, so the strong barrel notes from first-fill casks was key to giving it richness and balance. This makes me feel like it stacks up well against other entry-level peated single malts from Islay, which it clearly has the most kinship with. The price is also quite respectable - if you look in the right places. I picked my bottle up from Astor Wine, which has a nice free shipping deal for first-time customers. Basically, if you can find this one for under $50, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Above that the competition gets stiffer.

There are a couple of things I'd like to see from Ledaig now that I've tried the standard offering - first, and foremost, is a sherry cask matured version. I think Ledaig could shine even more brightly if it got the Bunnahabhain treatment - blend together a mix of first- and second-fill bourbon casks with some first-fill sherry casks. You'd get all of the rich caramel and vanilla alongside some extra fruit notes to work in counterpoint with the earthy peat. Sadly there aren't even a lot of options in the IB world right now, so I can only hope that Burn Stewart has some Ledaig sherry casks tucked away that will see the light of day in future. Secondly, I wish that the distillery would release some older expressions. I've heard excellent things about Ledaig after it has some more age on it and it would be great if the distillery started expanding their range. I have a bad feeling that older expressions would also be rather expensive, given the price point of Tobermory 15 Year, but one can hope.

Whisky Review: Tobermory 10 Year (Non-Chill Filtered)

Tobermory is the only distillery on the Isle of Mull, located in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland, directly across the Firth of Lorn from Oban, and north of the islands of Islay and Jura. The distillery was founded in 1798 (as is repeatedly pointed out in their new bottle designs), one of the few remaining distilleries that were opened before the 1823 Excise Act that legalized distilling. Originally known as Ledaig, the distillery had an extremely rough history before falling into the hands of Burn Stewart in the early 1990s. Since then things have been a bit more stable, including a recent major refresh of their whiskies, which are now all bottled at 46.3% ABV without chill filtration. To make things a little confusing, they sell two different single malts - their whisky made from unpeated malt is bottled as Tobermory and their whisky made from heavily peated malt is bottled as Ledaig (I've got a bottle of the 10 Year and will be reviewing it later).

Tobermory 10 Year

Nose: alcohol is noticeable, berries, floral vanilla perfume, fresh malt, toasted oak, green vegetation (peat, herbs, foliage, pine) and fruits (apples, pears), baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg). After adding a few drops of water, it becomes a bit more savory, with malt and fruit dominating to produce sugar cookie notes plus the addition of a bit of coffee, chocolate, and something nutty.

Taste: an interplay of sweet/sour/bitter, sweet malt up front with a bit of sour grape juice, a floral dash mid-palate and into the finish, flowing into bittersweet berries and dried fruit (raisins/figs/dates), vanilla, and oak, with a sour tinge throughout. After dilution it becomes sweeter throughout, with more fruit and berries up front and a healthy dose of pepper and ginger near the back,

Finish: floral sour malt, dried fruit (dates?) a touch of chocolate, light toasted oak, black pepper, slightly vegetal (herbal/minty)

While I enjoyed this whisky, I feel like it comes with a few caveats. The largest is that it took a while for me to feel like it had a coherent direction. For being bottled at relatively high strength and being blended together from all first-fill bourbon casks, the flavors were surprisingly restrained at first. This was ameliorated with time - there was much more clear bourbon barrel influence after I had drained about half the bottle, so letting it sit for a while after popping the cork may help. But it wasn't a particularly compelling experience at the start, which made it hard to wade through to get to a point where it became more interesting.

At this point, having just about drained the bottle, I would liken it to a bourbon barrel Glenfarclas - malt-driven, fruity and floral, but without the layer of sherry one finds in regular 'Farclas releases. If it had been like that to begin with, I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending it. It has great balance and I appreciate the distillery sticking with nothing but ex-bourbon casks instead of fussing around with finishes. But the first half of the bottle felt like a bit of a slog getting to that point. So I will give it a provisional thumbs up. Probably worth seeing if you can try a dram at a bar first before springing for an entire bottle.