whisky review: brachadair ledaig (59.9ABV)

Picked up a bottle of this stuff on my last visit to my local drinks supplier.

Brachadair is a small Belgian independant bottler. I had already tasted some of their other bottles, and I was usually pleasantly surprised. I hate to buy an entire bottle without having the option to taste it first (I don't mind paying for a taster, but I hate shelling out top-dollar and finding out that I'm stuck with a bottle I do not like.

In this case however, it was really what I had been looking for, for quite some time: a peated, bourbon cask aged cask strength (59.9ABV). The fact that I had had good experiences with this bottle before was what finally convinced me to pull the trigger, and I was not dissapointed. It is 10 years old (distilled in February 2008, and bottled in February 2018)

On the nose, there is peat, but it is surprisingly fresh for such a peaty whisky, almost citrussy. Ofcourse, on a 59.9ABV, the alcohol is going to be present, but if you briefly but forcefully blow in your glass (almost like spitting, but without the actual spitting part), you will blow off the alcohol vapour, and you will be able to briefly smell without the alcohol presence)

The taste is fairly light, and a logical prolongation of the nose: fresh, but with peat down there, not overpowering. The alcohol is present, but not in an unpleasant way. It is a beautiful whisky, ideal for early spring or late fall, when summer is still close, yet the weather starts to turn chilly.

It is (like all ledaigs) a heavily peated whisky, so it is not suited to someone who really hates peat, yet, for someone who can appreciate a little peat, but thinks of heavily peated whisky as akin to drinking asphalt: this is a great example to show them that peat can work together with a refreshing cleansing experience.

Great bottle, would buy more of them if they weren't very likely all gone by now.