Ledaig 11 Year Old Port Pipe - Distillery Exclusive

Mike Brisebois, the Canadian brand ambassador, handed me a sample of this scotch noting it’ll really “screw with my palate.” The direct quote is less family friendly. And it did, it really did. I’m hoping he didn’t screw with the sample, because it’s flavours are ridiculous.

Ledaig is peated Tobermary Distillery single malt scotch. This release reviewed here is one of their special distillery editions. Fully matured in port pipes, the flavour profile has gone from whisky into something else entirely. It’s basically a strawberry sundae on the nose, and a punch of high-proof dry syrupy spicy flavour on the palate. 

It’s a fun drink, that was incredibly weird to score. Tasting notes below: 

Ledaig 11 Year Old Port Pipe - Distillery Exclusive 
Tobermary Distillery 
Category: Single malt scotch, Peated, Port Pipe
Score: 89

Nose: Noses like dessert. Custard specifically. Touches of raspberry jam. It’s not creme brûlée, though, the top layer isn’t burnt. Most reminiscent of a strawberry sundae from my youth. Impossible to tell the booziness of this from the nose. I can barely tell it’s whisky, but there are some oaky fresh shaving notes. Definitely salty. Light smoke. 

Palate: Unlike the nose, which is so sweet and light, the palate hits you hard with booze and oak spice. Brown sugar sweetness, strawberry jam, plenty of fresh ground pepper, buttery notes, and it’s ridiculously dry. The finish is all dryness. There’s plenty of cinnamon and dark chocolate and dried fruit jammy notes all the way through. The sweetness comes together with a little water added. That sweetness will stick to your lips like nothing else. It’s a fascinating drink. 

Conclusion: I scored this out of 100 on a best effort basis, but it’s not about that. It’s about the experience of drinking this scotch. It’s basically like drinking a boozy strawberry sundae in so much that it noses like one, but it tastes like high octane dry finishing scotch. It makes me absolutely envious of people that can just drop by the distillery store and pick up weirdo whisky like this one. Cheers to that weird ones! 

Not a lot of reviews on this one. Best I could find is the always reliable whiskybase set of reviews.