Blind Tasting Competition Day 4 : Ledaig 8 yo [Whisky-Fässle]

After a shitty nose day (could barely smell that Balvenie), yesterday was much better, with me able to tell the whisky at hand was peated (not that hard, but it’s something), and after the fiasco of the other day things improved with me able to tell which distillery it was. This time after sniffing i got that farmy sort of compost-y feeling,and knew I had this distillery before, lots of time. It was not medicinal enough to be an Islay, and I also suspected an Islay would be too easy so the competition organizers would not make it easy on us (“trust no-one”). A few years back I was quite the Ledaig fan, and Since the NAS Ledaig was very affordable even back then when Israeli customs on whisky were 100%, I could buy that one locally and not sell an organ. This came to me as a distant memory and I decided to stick with my gut feeling today (having not done that before), and bear the consequences whatever they are (0 points, or so). I was really surprised to see this was indeed a Ledaig (although an indie bottling) , but o the other hand I was not very surprised. I’m crazy, yeah.

What was a real surprise was the ABV, as i was sure it was fairly low in abv, felt 40-44% Max to me, and turns out its over 53%… go figure. And as for age, I went for 10 yo which is a young but most Ledaigs are bottled younger (NAS) or under 10 yo. this was 8 yo, so I got some points, 60 Total for today, which is not bad putting me at #12 in the total list (probably going to drop down tomorrow, don’t worry).

Ledaig 8 yo, 2005-2014, 53.3% abv [Whisky-Fässle]ledaig_WF

Nose : This is a peated whisky for sure, there’s a lot of it around. It’s not the medicinal coastal peat you get from Islays, but it’s more farmy and reeky. I was discussing the nose with Sjoerd, and he mentioned Compost which was on the money. It feels young to me, under 12 for sure.

Palate: Palate is kicking and quite fierce, but not in terms of ABV. lots of peat and smoke going on here, with dry ash, and mossy casks. Not getting any fruity notes, but maybe some malt to add a bit of sweetness to the otherwise tart palate.

Finish: Smoke, ash and pepper.

This has to be my favourite whisky so far (or #2), I really like the Ledaig peat and the reek and compost here. I’m a fan. Not very complex, but lovely IMHO.

Score: 86/100

You can still buy one if you’re a fan (want it), for 60 EUR at Whisky-Fassle

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