Ledaig 1997 (Old Particular) (50.6%)

A Ledaig single malt, bottled by Douglas Laing, a 21 year old from 1997, drawn from cask DL 12761 and bottled at 50.6%. 261 bottles in all. Made on the Isle of Mull, Ledaig is the heavily peated malt of the island's only distillery. Its history is famously broken, with long silences; the buildings once held holiday lets and stored cheese.

Distilled from malt peated to around thirty seven parts per million, building the bold, smoky Ledaig style. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, vanilla beneath the soot. Beyond twenty years the smoke turns gentle and sweet, soot and brine over deep fruit and wax. The cool, damp island air gives a slow, even maturation. The stills carry boil bulbs and a kink in the lyne arms, which lifts the reflux. Water is drawn from a private hill loch, the Gearr Abhainn, above the town. Its painted home town gives the unpeated malt its name.

At cask strength 50.6% it is muscular. Wood smoke, BBQ char and a coastal salt, and vanilla and a soft oak come from the bourbon wood. It is bold and coastal, the peat and soot to the fore. The close is long, smoke over a sweet fruit. This is a heavily peated malt from Mull's only distillery.