Ledaig 15 Years Old A Dream of Scotland Fairytale Series (Brühler Whiskyhaus)

Brühler Whiskyhaus selected this Ledaig, aged 15 year old and bottled at 58.2%. Just 422 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. Burn Stewart revived the distillery in 1993, and Distell of South Africa bought it in 2013.

The spirit was worked through high reflux stills from peated malt, for the smoky, maritime spirit Ledaig is known for. A wine cask held it, layering red fruit over the soot. Around the mid teens the smoke knits with dried fruit and a sea salt. Years in oak round the smoke while the medicinal, tarry notes mellow. 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. Its painted home town gives the unpeated malt its name.

At 58.2%, undiluted, it is rich and deep. A maritime smoke over ripe fruit, and the wine cask lends red berry and a dry spice. Soft smoke and brine sit behind the cask sweetness. It closes long, smoky and briny. This is a bold, peated island single malt.