Ledaig 21 Manzanilla Cask

I'm really new to Ledaig and with that and a unique profile, I'm concerned with properly grading but, this is a newbie review I suppose. Nose - glue, plastic sour oak, ash and shoot, very much reminding me of bowmore. Water tames this one, bringing out sweetness and makes is much more pleasant and sweet forward. Taste - milk chocolate meets glue and plastic, putty, soot, with a tanic almost battery acid like peat finish. Water brings out more milk chocolate, tames the glue and plastic while pushing the soot out in front. There's a lot of baked fruit notes coming through now as well. So review coming with mike and I but I wanted to sit down with this by itself as my first drink of a day and really try and discover the malt. With water I start going back to talisker and craigellachie with the worm wood sweetness and that bit of talisker pepper. There's still a bowmore plastic note, very clean malt before the soot notes come in. A dirty malt mellowed with 21 years of aging, tamed with manzanilla notes, but still a dirty dirty dog at its core. I'm going with a 3 star rating. I think mike and I had this around an 87, but you'll have to watch the review in a few weeks. I whisky I love hating or hate loving? I'm not sure, but it's good stuff with a very traditional classic old world type feel that just doesn't nail on what I love in whisky, but hits on a lot of things I like.

The nose is ceramic, smoky, grilled pear and apple. The palate offers more complexity still. Strawberry notes, along with strong smoke, pear and apple again, and orange marmalade adding to a viscous mouthfeel. It lingers a long time with the peaty oils.

Beautifully peated. Deep, rich flavors.