It seems that a lot of bottlers are getting their hands on casks of Ledaig lately. And contrary to what was happening almost a decade ago, these casks aren’t shit.

There were great ones by The Whisky Kingdom/Duckhammers and The Whisky Agency in recent months, and now one by the WhiskyNerds joins the fray. Not too surprising, because I think there’s some similarity in where they source their casks from.

This one is 25 years old, which is a very decent age. It would mean that the peat smoke scents and flavors have diminished somewhat over the years in oak. Let’s find out what’s what!

Sniff:
Very crisp and wintry. A cold breeze on a beach. Some mossy notes too, as well as bonfire notes. A whiff of basil and menthol in the background. A lot less oak than I expected after 25 years in it.

Sip:
The palate is very gentle too, albeit quite dry. The dryness brings some sensation of heat, and dustiness. Sawdust, mossy oak, with some vanilla after a while. Lightly smoky, with some barley sugar sweetness. Grass and leafy herbs.

Swallow:
The finish goes slightly more hot, with some black pepper, with vanilla and barley sugar. Pear drops, moss, a small whiff of smoke.

So, this is a bit of a weird one. As in, normally I love older peated whiskies since the peat is far more integrated than in most 10 year old ones. However, in this case the peat has gone down so much that I had to remind myself of it being there at all. It’s not obvious anymore.

Bram, one of the WhiskyNerds said that that is so because it’s ‘sophisticated’, and while that may be true (or not, it’s quite subjective of course), I kind of miss it.

Having said that, this is still a very cracking dram, which upholds the WhiskyNerds reputation nicely.

89/100

Ledaig 1995-2020, 24 years old, Hogshead #128, 46.4%. Available at The Old Pipe for € 240