Ledaig 2009 WD (Whisky-Doris)

From Whisky-Doris comes this Ledaig, a 13 year old release from 2009, drawn from cask 700043 and bottled at 53.1%. Only 254 bottles were released. Ledaig is the smoky side of Tobermory distillery on the Isle of Mull, one of Scotland's oldest distilleries. Its history is famously broken, with long silences; the buildings once held holiday lets and stored cheese.

Run through the distillery's boil ball stills from peated barley, to build the medicinal, briny Ledaig character. A sherry butt held it, sherry and smoke twining together. By this age the peat rounds into a sweeter, coastal smoke. The phenols soften with age into a gentle, sweet wood smoke. Its painted home town gives the unpeated malt its name. A rare, more heavily peated make has appeared under the name Iona, after a neighbouring isle. In dry summers the distillery has paused when its hill loch ran low.

Bottled at a cask strength 53.1%, it is intense. Soot, sea salt and a sweet fruit, and the Oloroso lends raisin, walnut and a dried fruit richness. Beneath the smoke run brine, tar and a sweet fruit. It finishes smoky, salty and warming. This is the peated island malt of Mull.