Ledaig 2007 HiSp (Hidden Spirits) (52.5%)

Hidden Spirits selected this Ledaig, a 10 year old island malt from 2007, drawn from cask LG717 and bottled at 52.5%. A release of 277 bottles. Ledaig, the peated malt of Mull's only distillery, keeps the old name the distillery bore when John Sinclair founded it in 1798. Ledaig, the old name kept for the peated malt, means safe haven in Gaelic.

It was run through the distillery's boil ball stills from peated barley, to build the medicinal, briny Ledaig character. Ex-Bourbon casks held it, soft oak that lets the peat lead. At a youthful age the smoke is vigorous and coastal. Peat smoke and active oak settle together over the years, the smoke softening as the fruit deepens. 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.

Undiluted at 52.5%, it is powerful. Soot, sea salt and a sweet fruit, and honeyed vanilla comes through from the ex-Bourbon. Beneath the smoke run brine, tar and a sweet fruit. It closes long, smoky and briny. This is the peated island malt of Mull.