Ledaig 1998 C&S (C&S Dram Collection)

A Ledaig single malt, bottled by C&S Dram Collection, a 16 year old from 1998, drawn from cask 700243 and bottled at 57.5%. 208 bottles in all. Ledaig is the heavily peated single malt of Tobermory distillery, the only distillery on the Isle of Mull, founded in 1798. Ledaig, the old name kept for the peated malt, means safe haven in Gaelic.

It was distilled from malt peated to around thirty seven parts per million, building the bold, smoky Ledaig style. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, vanilla beneath the soot. By this age the peat rounds into a sweeter, coastal smoke. The cool, damp island air gives a slow, even maturation. 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. A rare, more heavily peated make has appeared under the name Iona, after a neighbouring isle.

At cask strength 57.5% it is muscular. Wood smoke, BBQ char and a coastal salt, and the ex-Bourbon lends vanilla and a soft honey. It is bold and coastal, the peat and soot to the fore. The close is long, smoke over a sweet fruit. This is a heavily peated malt from Mull's only distillery.