Ledaig 20 Years Old DeDr Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky Old Mull (Decadent Drinks)

This is a Ledaig, picked by Decadent Drinks, aged 20 year old from 2005 and bottled at 53.1%. Just 249 bottles were filled. 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. Ex-Bourbon casks held it, soft oak that lets the peat lead. Beyond twenty years the smoke turns gentle and sweet, soot and brine over deep fruit and wax. A patient maturation suits the bold, smoky Ledaig character. 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.

Undiluted at 53.1%, it is powerful. Peat smoke, brine and a medicinal note, and ex-Bourbon oak gives vanilla and a light sweetness. 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.