Island

Ledaig Gordon & MacPhail 14 Year

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Ledaig 14 Year Gordon & MacPhail
Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky

57.5% ABV
$140
Website
Ledaig 14 Year Gordon & MacPhail

What the Bottle Says

Cask Strength
LEDAIG
From Tobermory Distillery
DISTILLED: 21/09/2000
CASK: Refill Sherry Hogshead
BOTTLED: 20/01/2015
REGION: Island
Aged 14 Years In Oak Cask
Natural Colour | Non-Chill Filtered

Each expression in our Cask Strength range is unique. A small selection of casks is carefully chosen and the contents bottled – always at natural strength and colour, with no chill filtering.

LEDAIG FROM TOBERMORY DISTILLERY 2000, 57.5% ALC/VOL
Smoked cured meat aromas with hints of leather and orange. The palate is sweet with fruit flavors, complemented by hints of bonfire embers.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Rich fruit and peat, leather, pipe smoke, kiwi, nectarines, medicinal, tobacco, smoked pork roast and ashy.
Palate:  Thick and viscous mouthfeel, oily, fruitcake with a healthy dose of peat smoke, blood oranges, raisins, pepper spice, honey, walnuts, savory spice notes including tarragon.
Finish:  Long and syrupy sweet with dark fruits, pepper, peat and smoked meats.
Comments:  This is my 2nd Ledaig and is lovely! The non-chill filtration is much appreciated, and really adds so much to the mouthfeel and palate. Just thick and syrupy throughout. I love the balance between the sweet and savory. A bit of water thickens this up even more, and brings the fruit forward along with baked pastries. I picked this up at a local package store during the pandemic (February 2021). I am a fan of independent bottlings, although rarely do I buy a second bottle (figuring I’d rather have a new experience and try something else). This was an exception to that, and I’m glad I picked up a second bottle. I liked it so much, that while grabbing that second bottle (in January 2022), I picked up another independent bottling of Ledaig (this one a 19 year from Cadenhead).

Rating: Must Try/Must Buy

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Unnamed Orkney 2006 14 Year

/ / Island, Review, Scottish Whisky /

Unnamed Orkney 2006 14 Year
Signatory Vintage The Un-chillfiltered Collection
Single Malt Scotch Whisky

46% ABV
$100
Website
Unnamed Orkney 14 Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky

What the Bottle Says

AGED: 14 years
DISTILLED ON: February 14, 2006
BOTTLE ON: September 25, 2020
MATURED IN: a Refill Butt
VATTING CASK NO: DRU 17/A65 #7
BOTTLE NO: 643
Un-chillfiltered | Natural Colour

What Gary Says

Nose:  Sherried dark fruit, raw honey, toffee, grilled peaches, smoky, spent matchsticks and sea mist.
Palate:  Thick mouthfeel, savory sherry notes, allspice, honey, raisins, subtle peat and a bit of pepper.
Finish:  Moderately long, wet with dark fruits and trailing pepper spice.
Comments:  If I had to guess (which is all I can do), I’d peg this as Highland Park – which seems like a safe bet since there’s only two distilleries on Orkney (the other being Scapa, which I’m not familiar with). But it definitely reminds me of Highland Park, although a refill butt so less sherry intensity. This is also lighter in color than Highland Park 12 yr. I really like how this dram clouds up with some water, which also tamps down the sherry notes on the palate and brings out more island notes.

Rating: Stands Out

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Duncan Taylor ‘Dimensions’ Highland Park 20 Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky

/ / Island, Review, Scottish Whisky /

Duncan Taylor ‘Dimensions’ Highland Park 20 Year
Single Malt Scotch Whisky

53% ABV
$150-$180
Website
Duncan Taylor Dimensions Highland Park 20 Yr

What the Bottler Says

Bottled at cask strength of 53% ABV and without chill-filtration or artificial colouring, this single malt has matured beautifully as a result of 20 years in an ex-sherry butt. The traditionally lightly-peated notes of Highland Park are still present, however they have softened over time and have been complimented with a hint of salt and notes of mixed fruit, baked apples and honey from the sherry cask.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Peat fire with salted sea mist, fruity with cherries, peaches, raisins, vanilla, chocolate with cedar-smoked pork roast.
Palate:  Rich mouthfeel with honey, apples, cherries, pepper, chocolate, toffee, walnuts and peat.
Finish:  Long and damp with fruity peat notes.
Comments:  A rather nice Highland Park bottling. Before researching the bottle details, I would not have pegged this as being fully matured in sherry (first the color isn’t what you’d expect for that age in sherry), so guessing it is a second or maybe third fill sherry (as they have a lot of sherry casks around Highland Park). Which isn’t a bad thing by any stretch – since the retail Highland Park gives you that big sherry take on their distillate. A nice balance that lets the distillery’s character shine through while giving you some of those luscious fruit notes from the sherry.

Rating: Stands Out

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Highland Park Full Volume

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Highland Park Full Volume
Single Malt Scotch Whisky

47.2% ABV
$100
Website
Highland Park Full Volume

What the Distillery Says

Some things in life are best enjoyed in their most intense forms. This includes your closest friendships, your favourite songs, and exceptionally intense single malt whiskies. Full Volume is a robust, beautifully balanced whisky, exclusively matured in Kosher certified ex-bourbon casks, rather than our traditional sherry casks. This allowed us to turn up the volume on those succulent creamy bourbon notes. Distilled in 1999, the resulting 17-year jam session of maturation yielded an ABV of 47.2% and was bottled and released in 2017. The intense flavour profile delivers creamy vanilla and light citrus fruits, all balanced out by Highland Park’s characteristic smokiness.

NATURAL CASK-DRIVEN COLOUR (NO ADDITIVES)
Light straw, clear and bright

FLAVOURS: Vanilla | Coconut | Mango | Pineapple | Cedar Wood | Lemon peel | Vanilla pods | Light smoke

Full Volume was created by:

  • Using 100% FIRST-FILL BOURBON CASKS rather than sherry seasoned ones
  • Combining 200 LTR BARRELS and 250 LTR HOGSHEADS
  • Filling 481 CAKS on the 30th March; 29th April; 10th, 17th and 31st August; 7th September – All during 1999
  • Filling at strengths of between 63.6% AND 63.7%
  • Filtered at +4 degrees C

Richard Burton from Kirkwall, was our warehouseman when these casks were laid down – he is still working with us!

TASTING NOTES

Full Volume is a 1999 Vintage, intensely balanced, single malt Scotch whisky. Naturally PALE AND BRIGHT in colour, it delivers a LIGHT PEATY AROMA, punctuated with WARM FRUITY NOTES of exotic mango and pineapple and an echo of cedar wood. Warm and generous in the mouth, a SWEET CITRUS treble of lemon peel perfectly offsets deeper bass notes of CREAMY VANILLA while subtle mid-tones of LIGHT SMOKE maintain an enticing harmony.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Honey malt, peat, heather, grassy, bit of vanilla, hint of sea salt and iodine.
Palate:  Malty vanilla, bit of soft citrus with pears, bit of peat, pepper and a hint of mandarin oranges.
Finish:  Moderately long, drying with honeyed peat and pepper spice.
Comments:  I like Highland Park, and did my best to not try to think of this like Highland Park as it would be a departure without the sherried maturation. I didn’t find anything off putting, but for the money, I would be disappointed. Left me unimpressed, although it is an interesting view into the distillate and maturation without the sherry influence. Dangerously drinkable, but a tad forgettable for me.

Rating: Average/Stands Out

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Talisker 57° North

/ / Island, Review, Scottish Whisky /

Talisker 57° North Single Malt

57.8% ABV
$75
Website
Talisker 57 North
We would like to thank Paul (who shares reviews on Distiller.com, as well as reviews and general musings on his YouTube channel Dapper Drams) for the sample to review!

What the Distillery Says

Talisker 57° North takes its name from this remote, rugged and windswept distillery’s latitude. And rightly so, because this is an untamed, natural expression of the Talisker’s full power: a volcanic, intensely appealing flavour that most drinkers will have only experienced in a cask strength bottling.

Appearance: Full gold.
Nose: Clean and intense, with the light smoke of a struck match. Creamy toffee balanced by fruit. Hints of seaweed, heather blossom and vanilla.
Body: Explosive, intense and smoky.
Palate: Sweet, with smoke and tar exploding around the middle – evoking the raw volcanic power which formed Skye’s famous Black Cuillin mountains.
Finish: Oily, tingling with the signature pepperiness. Smoother with water.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Big sea-mist, iodine, oysters, sea-brine, acrid smoke, vanilla with hints of chocolate.
Palate:  Sweet with apricots, pears and caramel to start, than a pepper pop midway through with sulfur, smoke and peat.
Finish:  Long, drying with pepper and sea salt.
Comments:  This is Talisker with the volume turned up past 11. A non-age stated bottling, but nothing in my experience would lead me to believe it is young. While the proof will up the umph, taking a 5 yr malt at near cask strength wouldn’t be that similar of a profile when diluted.  After making my notes, I decided to take 10 mL and bring it down to about 92 proof, and it reminded me of Talisker 10 yr – so my guess is that it isn’t far off in terms of age.  Regardless of age, this is just delicious.  If you are a fan of Talisker or peaty malts in general, I’d highly recommend trying it.  I think you’d enjoy it.

Rating: Must Try

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