Ledaig SMWS 42.22 “Brave the elements”

Thanks to /u/devoz for this sample

As part of an important meeting to discuss an upcoming whisky tasting event (super important) it came up that one of us had not reviewed many Ledaig offerings.

By the way, that’s pronounced “Le-check”, because Gaelic doesn’t give a fuck.

As such, we ‘had’ to go about the very important detail of reviewing some single cask offerings from Ledaig, starting with Ledaig SMWS 42.22 “Brave the elements”.

Ledaig is the heavily peated version of Tobermory. For some people, Tobermory by itself has a lovely rear end flavour that makes their day and fits their fetish.

For the rest of us poor buggers who haven’t found our fetish just yet, the extra peat is welcome.

So this is heavily peated, single cask, and 9 years old. Let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Price: Sold Out

Region: Island

Date Distilled: October 2006

Age: 9 years

Cask Type: Refill barrel

Outturn: 210

Abv: 59.3%

Colour:7.5Y 9/4

Nose: Peat, farmyard, fruit funk, mango, malt, cocoa, brine

Lots of funk off of this one. Very much in the wheelhouse for Ledaig. If you’ve never been to a farmyard, it’s more of an earthy shit smell than your typical city. More of a compost pile type of smell.

It’s odd the things we end up enjoying. Not fetishized though.

Nice amount of malt and chocolate on this. The brine actually takes some time to come out, which is interesting for a coastal/Island dram.

Taste: Orange, smoke, more smoke, brine, wheat, butter

What I’m saying is there’s a lot of smoke. I could probably convince someone that there’s fire here, that’s how much smoke. Takes some getting around.

Unbalanced overall. The orange is the only thing that can fight through the smoke.

Finish: Cocoa, licorice, brine, smoked meat, peat

Long finish, and luckily the smoke isn’t as simple or omnipresent here as before. It’s more of a bunch of sweets and smoked meat and peat. Which personally I enjoy, though all at once can be a little disarming.

Conclusion: So the name makes sense, as this seems to send all the elements at you at once like you’re some sort of Final Fantasy boss and the player is a little worried only 17 ultimate attacks can finish you off.

Oh to be 10 again.

Nose is quite nice. Punchy, earthy, farmyard, and fruity. If you have enjoyed Ledaig before, it’ll be a no brainer. Taste is unbalanced, and where this dram falls down to me, though not as hard as Michael Douglas.

The finish can be intense. I can enjoy it now, but at the time it took my face off.

Try this one before you buy.

80/100

Scotch review #685, Island review #86, Whisky Network review #1146