Review #256 - Ledaig 10 Year — Me, My Wife & Whisky

Tobermory Distillery's 'Ledaig' branding is reserved for their heavily peated expressions - here, we have a member of the core range, the bottle that is the most widely available from the brand: the 10 Year Old.

Using Concerto barley peated to levels between 30 and 40 ppm, Tobermory creates a smoky experience with undisclosed cask types. The color will vary from batch to batch, possibly hinting at either varying proportions of first fill and refill casks, or varying proportions of ex-bourbon and ex-wine/sherry casks; based on our tasting experience, we would suggest that this spends most of its time maturing in ex-bourbon casks.

Like all of the whiskies under the Tobermory/Ledaig umbrella, we get craft presentation: over 46% ABV, no chill filtration, and no use of caramel coloring.

Ledaig 10 Year

Scotland/Highlands - Single Malt

Price Paid: USD 65 (2023)

Current Locally Available Price: USD 65 (2024)

Age Statement: 10 Years

Strength: 46.3% ABV

Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; Concerto barley peated to 30-40ppm

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 5 times over 13 months; bottles at 100%, 80%, 70%, 60% (blind tasting), and 40% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes

Nose: Generally light and crisp in complexion; medium to strong phenolic peat is the most obvious scent, but there are layers of lemon-lime, salt, iodine, and pepper behind it. There's a soft earthy side to this, like petrichor and minerality, as well as some farmyard funk and hay; occasional notes of balsamic and custard came and went.

Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium thickness; strong peat smoke takes on an ashy and woody character, even wood char. Quite briny, with more oak tickling the palate; there's a zing from ginger and lemon-lime soda, as well as white pepper, while soft notes linger in the background: moss, poached pears, vanilla, and buttered toast.

Finish: Ashy smoke lingers the longest, with embers and drying oak in tow. More sharp notes in the forms of cinnamon, pickled ginger, jalapeno, and lemon; oily, briny salt in plentiful, and there are interesting flavors of root vegetables and vanilla cream in the aftertaste. It's a medium-long finish.

Final Note: A good place to start for age-stated, heavily-peated whisky. There's solid character here, but it isn't going to blow your socks off with complexity - it's a relatively straightforward dram. Lots of classic ex-bourbon peaty whisky flavors, although the additions of vegetative and custard-like notes were nice, if only occasional.

Quite good value - one of the reasons this bottle gets recommended so often for those looking for an alternative to some classic peat monsters like Laphroaig 10 Year and Ardbeg 10 Year. Price has stayed level for a couple of years, so we would still recommend buying if you're interested.

Our Average Rating: 7.0 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 6.96