Ledaig 13 Year Old 2007 Decadent Drinks Whisky Sponge Edition 24 Single Refill Sherry Butt Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2021) 70cl

Ledaig 13 Year Old 2007 Decadent Drinks Whisky Sponge Edition 24 Spongezilla Single Refill Sherry Butt Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2021) 70cl

Edition 24 of Whisky Sponge is a 2007 refill sherry butt of Ledaig single malt. This particular cask of Ledaig was distilled and filled by Spongezilla in summer 2007 during its brief sojourn on the Isle of Mull where it laid waste to the town of Tobermory and many thousands of lives were lost. The whisky was on purpose bottled at 53% because you're all a big bunch of jessies who can't handle cask strength whisky and you know it!

Please enjoy this Ledaig responsibly as though you were a tiny huddled human in a burnt out shell of a Glasgow tower block. Hoping the barest tremor of your own breath won't arouse the hungover wrath of Spongezilla to your location leading to your swift demise in a hail of poorly-decanted vintage Musar sediment and donner kebab shrapnel. 

TASTING NOTES & COMMENTS by The Dramble

Nose: Spongezilla might come across as a hulking beast, but there’s a surprising amount of sophistication and tenderness here. Smoked clove-studded ham, squid ink and stepped apple tea is joined by cocoa powder and herbal smoke. Deeper, barnyard funk and cigarette ash sit with paraffin oil, porridge and chopped almonds. Undeniably Ledaig – but there’s admirable restraint here too. Reduction reveals concrete and wall plaster together with putties and clays, medicinal wraps, oyster, seaweed and saline. There’s quite a lot going on here that makes manipulating the ABV well worthwhile.

Taste: Lamp oils and pan fats join roast ham and burnt ends. Salted lemon slices lift the whisky up, whilst damp peat, sea spray and wet wool seek to pull it back down. Quite crystalline in places with shale, slate and rocky outcroppings – before heading into burnt nuts, industrially tinged medicinal smoke and mentholated oakiness. Dilution retains the shape and style overall, but considerably ups the brightness and sweetness levels with candy lemon drops, lime gel and a scattering of jelly babies.

Finish: Long with menthol, smoked eucalyptus and a handful of chopped herbs.

Whisky Sponge’s city destroying Mull monster is rather less scaly and much fluffier and cuddlier than I expected. Whilst all of the various cues you’d expect to find from Ledaig of this age are here – they’re neatly scattered throughout the nose and palate both neat and reduced. As such, I find this to be very fun whisky indeed - it possesses a wonderfully playful adaptability which can be modified entirely depending on one’s mood. Pretty excellent and right up my street whether dropped with some water or simply served neat. Don’t mind if I kaiju.

About Tobermory / Ledaig

The Tobermory distillery is located in the main town of the same name on the Isle of Mull. The distillery, the only one on the Isle of Mull, is located in the northern part of the island on Tobermory Bay. From Oban on the mainland it is about a 40-minute ferry ride to Mull. Tobermory comes from the Gaelic and means "the Mary or Maria spring". The Tobermory distillery was founded in 1798 under the name Ledaig. In 1972 the Ledaig Distillery Tobermory Ltd. was founded. The name was then changed from Ledaig to Tobermory and after many closures the distillery was reopened in 1993. At the Tobermory distillery there are two wash stills and two spirit stills in the stillhouse. One pair of stills is used for Tobermory production and since 1996 Ledaig malt has been distilled again, the other two stills are for the production of Ledaig single malt. Ledaig malt is made from a more peated malt. Since Tobermory sold the warehouse, which has now been converted into apartments, the new spirit is stored at Deanston on the mainland. Refill, sherry and bourbon casks are used. The water comes from a lake in the mountains. The character of Tobermory malt is slightly peated and firm, the peat flavour does not come from the malt but from the water.

53% ABV

70cl