Ledaig 1993 (Connoisseurs Choice) (46%)

A Ledaig single malt, bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, a 19 year old from 1993 and bottled at 46%. Made on the Isle of Mull, Ledaig is the heavily peated malt of the island's only distillery. The distillery makes two malts: the unpeated Tobermory and the peated Ledaig.

It was run through the distillery's boil ball stills from peated barley, to build the medicinal, briny Ledaig character. Maturation in sherry laid dried fruit over the peat. At this age it is mellow and oily, the smoke folded into a rich body. 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. Burn Stewart revived production in 1993, and Distell bought the distillery in 2013.

At an easy 46% it is gentle. 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. The close is long, smoke over a sweet fruit. This is the peated island malt of Mull.