The Ledaig brand comprises one half of Tobermory’s output, a heavily peated malt in the 30-40ppm range. The Tobermory distillery, in fact, was originally founded as the Ledaig distillery in 1798. The distillery has four wash stills and four spirit stills, with production capable of a million liters of spirit a year after an upgrade in 1990. The water for the whisky is taken from a small, private loch close to the Mishnish lochs. While the number of offerings in the brand is limited, they occasionally include limited options often featuring special cask finishes or unusual age statements. The Ledaig 18 is finished in ex-Sherry wood, though the official details don’t seem to note specifically what kind of sherry. Others seem to think well of this scotch, as it has won several awards at recent spirits competitions.
Distillery: Tobermory
Region: Islands
Age: 18 years
Strength: 46.3%
Price: $144.97
Maturation: Small batch Spanish sherry wood finish
Location: Tobermory, Isle of Mull
Nose: Honey, dandelion, ozone, sherry, smoke,
Palate: Iodine, smoke, molasses
Finish: Char, smoke, tobacco
Comments: Check out our review of the Ledaig 18’s younger sibling, the Ledaig 10 from almost exactly 6 years ago. A little water can help balance out the elements if they are too strong for your personal preference.
Adam – The Ledaig 18 is heavenly. It is so fragrant you can smell it across the room with ease. Smoke and tobacco with an underlay of peat greets you. Behind that is some fruit, some orange or other citrus and a little candy sweetness. The palate translates right from the nose and is delicious. The smoke is dominant with a little crisp of light pepper at the end, just enough to signify the transition into the finish. The elements are wonderfully integrated yet vibrant enough to stand as a whole. The finish stays in your mouth with a little muted smoke but keeps going and going. This is not a cheap scotch, to be sure, but if you want to treat yourself or celebrate any kind of milestone, you could do far worse than this loveliness.
Meghan – The seaside in spring: Fresh flowers with a touch of sea salt. There is a ozone/green freshness mixed with a kind of grimy smoke, like grass just coming up through the mud and last year’s decaying plant matter. There is a hint of low tide on the nose but the light flowery scent and the salt mostly overpower the low tide. For having such a strong nose and palate, there isn’t as much to the finish as I would expect. There is some nice charcoal smoke as well as some definite tobacco, kind of in a stale smoke/ashtray way. The finish is kind of a disappointment, even though it lingers nicely. I want to just hold this one in my mouth to discover all its nuances rather than having to let it finish into its sad smoke.
I want to just hold this one in my mouth to discover all its nuances.
Mary-Fred – Mead. I’ve walked into my grandmother’s house, and the years of cigarettes and tea are all layered in there. The nose did not prepare me for that mix of sweet and darkness.
Caitlin – The Ledaig 18 is like sunflowers or sunshine. Or looking at Van Gogh’s Sunflower painting. Like I was walking through a field of sunflowers, this is how it would smell in my mind.
Ben – Like walking down one hallway of my grandmother’s house that had the old photos of all the relatives going back into the ages. There’s history, more than I’ll ever know. When you taste it, the people in those photographs come alive. A darkness to it like dessert coffee. So much happening and things keep showing up.
Kate – The Ledaig 18 smells like sweet hay to me. It sparkles with spice on the front of your tongue.
Bill – Oh yes. This will make an old house come alive. This is what Scrooge would have drunk before the spirits visited him. This is a serious dram. It’s not a cheery drink, it’s a serious one.
Henry – Smells like damp dandelion flower. Dandelion mead. There’s an integrated note of sweet char that carries from the first strip all the way to the finish, the backbone upon what all the other flavors are built. It starts off dandelion, goes to molasses and then finishes with a puff of char. It’s never acrid or sour, never predominating, always subtle.
