Ledaig 2007 (Connoisseurs Choice)

This is a Ledaig, picked by Gordon & MacPhail, an 18 year old island malt from 2007, drawn from cask 22605103 and bottled at 54.9%. Just 316 bottles were filled. Ledaig, the peated malt of Mull's only distillery, keeps the old name the distillery bore when John Sinclair founded it in 1798. Its history is famously broken, with long silences; the buildings once held holiday lets and stored cheese.

Drawn off stills with their S shaped lyne arms, from peated malt, for a heavily peated island spirit. Maturation in sherry laid dried fruit over the peat. Around the mid teens the smoke knits with dried fruit and a sea salt. Long maturation turns fierce young smoke into a rounded, coastal peat. The distillery was refurbished and its stills renewed between 2017 and 2019. Mull's maritime climate works into the maturing casks over the years. It is one of the oldest commercial distilleries in Scotland still working.

Bottled at a cask strength 54.9%, it is intense. A sooty smoke with tar and brine, and the Oloroso gives dried fruit and a toasted nuttiness. The texture is oily, the smoke threaded with sea salt. Soot and brine see out a long finish. This is Ledaig's smoky, maritime single malt.