Ledaig 15 Year Old 2000 Connoisseurs Choice

I recently was offered the possibility to try no less than nine Ledaig from Gordon & Macphail’s Connoisseurs Choice head-to-head, all distilled between 1990 and 2004 and bottled between 2011 and 2017. Well, that was an opportunity I could not pass up. Let’s give those a go. This is the Ledaig that was distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2015. It matured on Refill Sherry & Bourbon Casks.

Okay, this is quite different on the nose than those on either American oak or sherry casks. It’s the combination of these that offers up pleasant notes of creamy butter, fruit paste and hazelnuts. The smoke is somewhat pushed away. Blind I’d have called this Isle of Jura.

Silky soft on the palate, more sweet than anything else and hardly any smoke left. Some citrus and toffee, chestnuts and nuts. Smoke appears midpalate and then a big salty note kicks in. From the second sip on it becomes much better and at third sip it’s actually excellent! A three-stage-rocket.

The finish is rather long on light smoke and lots of greasy ashes. Delicious.

Great vatting. At cask strength this would have been a belter.

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