A Scot on Scotch

WHISKY REVIEWS, NEWS, HISTORY & FOLKLORE

Ledaig to Tobermory

In this review, A Scot on Scotch looks to the Isle of Mull and the colourful village of Tobermory. The island’s only distillery was known for years as Ledaig before it was named after the settlement in which it dwells. Nowadays, it produces two unique spirits: one peated and one unpeated with the former taking the distillery’s original name. The featured dram is the Ledaig Amarone Cask Finish.

You’ll find many a source to tell you that Ledaig means “safe haven” but in his book The A to Z of Whisky Place Names: Landscape, Language & Invention, Jacob King dispels this idea and offers a more likely explanation. He suggests that the meaning of the Gaelic form of the name An Leideag may come from lethaideag meaning “small slope”. Gaelic place names tend to describe the location – one needs only look to Islay and Bruthach a’ Chladaich (Bruichladdich) “the slope of the shore”.

Ledaig Distillery, or Tobermory as it’s now known, has endured a troubled existence. Founded in 1798, the distillery was in and out of production before finally being closed down, seemingly for good, in 1930.

Fortunately, you can’t keep a good distillery down…

The distillery was later taken on by Burn Stewart Distillers in 1993. They, in turn, were acquired by Distell in 2013 and the distillery is now part of the CVH Spirits group, along with Deanston and Bunnahabhain.

Ledaig Amarone Cask Finish Review

The Ledaig Amarone Cask Finish is aged for 12 years and bottled at 57.5% abv. It was distilled in December 2008 and bottled in December 2020. The whisky was finished for 18 months in Amarone red wine casks.

Amarone is one of Italy’s most famous wines. It is a full-bodied red from the Veneto region made using a process that involves drying the grapes before fermentation. This concentrates the sugars and boosts the flavour.

Tasting notes: The nose starts out coastal and smoky. There’s brine and seashells and damp, sandy beaches with ashy smoke that carries a slightly medicinal edge. There’s a wee bit of iodine in there, too. Then the Amarone comes through in the form of blackcurrant and bramble jam. Cherries. Plums0. A bit of black pepper, too. On the palate, there’s a big spicy arrival with lots of peppery heat. That’s followed by sea salt and brine with thick, acrid peat smoke. There’s some liquorice, aniseed and more of the blackcurrant from the nose. Some glacé cherries in there, and some dark chocolate.

Thoughts: The red wine cask finish is quite subtle and acts as top dressing to the typically coastal character of Ledaig. I might have liked to see a bit more from the finish – if you’re going to market the whisky as an Amarone finish, give me lots of Amarone. It’s a little more present on the nose but I found its influence quite gentle on the palate. That doesn’t make this a bad dram, just perhaps not quite what you might expect. It’s not a red wine bomb but it is still a cask-strength whisky from a very capable distillery that contains everything good about Ledaig, plus a little extra.

Price: £99 (RRP). £70 paid (Master of Malt Flash Sale). It’s an enjoyable dram but the original asking price was pushing it slightly. I’m happy enough at the discounted price.

For more on Ledaig visit here

Subscribe to A Scot on Scotch

Donate to A Scot on Scotch