Ledaig 2008 (Old Particular) (48.4%)

This is a Ledaig, picked by Douglas Laing, a 15 year old island malt from 2008, drawn from cask DL 17765 and bottled at 48.4%. The outturn was 349 bottles. Ledaig, the peated malt of Mull's only distillery, keeps the old name the distillery bore when John Sinclair founded it in 1798. The distillery was founded in 1798 by John Sinclair, a local kelp merchant, as the Ledaig distillery.

The spirit was made in the kinked copper stills from peated barley, for a smoky, tarry make with a sweet core. It was matured in ex-Bourbon oak, a vanilla sweetness beneath the smoke. Around the mid teens the smoke knits with dried fruit and a sea salt. Sherry wood and peat smoke twine together, dried fruit meeting soot. Mull's maritime climate works into the maturing casks over the years. It is one of the oldest commercial distilleries in Scotland still working. Tobermory has distilled in the island's harbour town since 1798.

Undiluted at 48.4%, it is powerful. Peat, iodine and a fruity sweetness, and the ex-Bourbon lends vanilla and a soft honey. A sweet fruit and a medicinal note sit under the smoke. Soot and brine see out a long finish. This is the smoky side of Tobermory distillery.