A few days ago I wrote about what Past Future meant according to the guys at The Whisky Exchange / The Whisky Show / Elixir Distillers / Speciality Drinks Ltd. Now we get around to Present Future. Or, as it is commonly known, the Future.

From the explanation I got it means that this is what is seen as the future of single malt whisky right now. So, not much of a gamble, if you ask me because what we expect to see in our future is what we expect to see in our future. Makes sense? I’ve lost myself, I think.

Anyway, Ledaig. Not my favorite of distilleries/brands. There have been some good ones and even a few epic ones. Most of them I find only so/so. This 12 year old is at least getting a bit of age under its belt, since for quite some time Ledaig meant five to eight  year old firewater. Let’s see where this one sits!

Sniff:
Slightly rubbery, with oak, malt and yeasty beer. Dark cherries, blackberries, oak and smoke. Buttery toast and shoe polish.

Sip:
More gentle than expected with smoke, oak and a hint of turpentine and shoe polish. Dirty Ledaig, some mezcal like notes in the diesel like smoke.

Swallow:
Sweet fruit, berries and cherries, mezcal and shoe polish. Very strange, but oddly delicious.

I sort of knew what I was getting in to, since I had this whisky once before, at Maltstock. However, I wanted to sit down for it again, since at Maltstock I was slightly hungover from the night before, and it also wasn’t my first whisky of the day. Or the tenth.

However, my conclusions are rather similar to the ones drawn then. This is a very good Ledaig, and a good whisky in general. There’s a lot of weird flavors going on, with diesel smoke and mezcal and butter not being something I generally use to describe something I really enjoyed. However, in this dram, it makes sense.

88/100

Ledaig 12, 58.4%, Sherry Butt, 636 (!) bottles available initially. They might pop up online, if there’s any left after The Whisky Show.