Ledaig 2001 (Connoisseurs Choice) (58.4%)

Gordon & MacPhail selected this Ledaig, a 20 year old release from 2001, drawn from cask 285 and bottled at 58.4%. Only 498 bottles were released. Ledaig is the peated malt made at Tobermory on Mull, a distillery founded as Ledaig in 1798. The single malts are bottled without chill filtration at 46.3 percent or higher.

Worked through high reflux stills from peated malt, for the smoky, maritime spirit Ledaig is known for. Ex-Sherry wood added dried fruit to the smoky spirit. Beyond twenty years the smoke turns gentle and sweet, soot and brine over deep fruit and wax. Years in oak round the smoke while the medicinal, tarry notes mellow. It is one of the oldest commercial distilleries in Scotland still working. Tobermory has distilled in the island's harbour town since 1798. The town of Tobermory was laid out by the British Fisheries Society a decade before the distillery came. The distillery's history is broken by long silences; its buildings once stored a local cheddar.

At a full 58.4% it is intense and layered. A maritime smoke over ripe fruit, and the Oloroso adds figgy fruit and a warm nuttiness. Soft smoke and brine sit behind the cask sweetness. It closes long, smoky and briny. This is a bold, peated island single malt.