A mate hands you the aisle at Dan Murphy's and says pick something smoky we'll all drink. That's the quiet test, really — not the bottle you love most, but the one the whole table gets on with. Reach for Ledaig 10 and you've answered it.
That's the point here. Of all the bottles sitting near Ledaig 10, it's in the top 7% for how broadly it's liked. Put it in front of a mixed room and most hands go up.
The bottle itself is Tobermory's peated malt, and this 10-year-old is it hitting its stride. Not chill-filtered, so there's a brisk punch of peat and a raw edge that's bracing without being hard work, carried by plenty of soothing sweetness. Earthy peat smoke, ripe barley, honeyed vanilla and bourbon barrel char, then black liquorice, espresso bean, a touch of olive brine and a suggestion of beef jerky. It tastes a shade younger than its ten years, which reads here as character rather than a mark against it.
If you want a change, three bottles near it do the same job, each told apart by where it leans.
Talisker 10, $92 for members. Sweet pear under the smoke, heather and a cracked black pepper finish; the smoke sits lighter than Ledaig's. To a Ledaig 10 drinker it gives about 99% of what the Ledaig does, for 93% of its price.
Lagavulin 8, $99 for members. Straight to the shore — mineral, salt and brine, then menthol, bay laurel and a lick of Parma violet. Breezier than the rest. About 96% of the Ledaig for a Ledaig drinker, at 100% of its price.
Caol Ila 12, $99 for members. Fish wrapped in bacon with a squeeze of lemon at a beach barbecue, floral and allspice up top, pineapple and melon over medium peat. The fruitiest of the set, and about 95% of the Ledaig, also at 100% of its price.
What to pay. Ledaig 10 is $99 for members this week. It usually sells around $104, and we've seen it between $99 and $112, so this week it's at the bottom of that. Across roughly 26 standard drinks in the bottle that's about $3.87 a pour at home, against about $6.28 for the same measure in a $13 pint at the pub.
Now the other way of weighing it. Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Ledaig 10 what this one is worth to them, each starting from what they pay for their own, and the answers run from $86 to $133. At $99 for members, Ledaig 10 sits inside what those drinkers would pay. And every one of them who shares its flavours puts it at nine-tenths or more of their own bottle.
So who's it for? If Ledaig is already your bottle, $99 for members is the week's number and nothing's changed. If you lean sweeter and lighter on smoke, Talisker 10 is the one at $92. If you want the sea in the glass, Lagavulin 8. If you'd rather fruit and barbecue than bracing peat, Caol Ila 12. And if you're the one picking for the table, Ledaig 10 is the safe hand — the bottle the widest spread of drinkers reaches for.
One bottle, one easy yes.
None recorded.
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