Ledaig 2009 Sb Finest Whisky Berlin Retirement Batch (Sansibar)

This is a Ledaig, chosen and bottled by Sansibar, aged 15 year old from 2009 and bottled at 52.8%. 281 bottles in all. Ledaig is the heavily peated single malt of Tobermory distillery, the only distillery on the Isle of Mull, founded in 1798. Its history is famously broken, with long silences; the buildings once held holiday lets and stored cheese.

Distilled from peated malt in kinked copper stills on soft Mull water, giving a sooty, coastal peat smoke over a fruity sweetness. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, a light sweetness under the peat. Around the mid teens the smoke knits with dried fruit and a sea salt. A patient maturation suits the bold, smoky Ledaig character. Burn Stewart revived production in 1993, and Distell bought the distillery in 2013. 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.

At cask strength 52.8% it is muscular. Peat smoke, brine and a medicinal note, and the bourbon cask adds vanilla and a gentle honey. A BBQ char and a sea salt lift it. Soot and brine see out a long finish. This is Ledaig, the peated malt of the Isle of Mull.