Ledaig 2001 DeDr Whisky Sponge (Decadent Drinks)

A Ledaig single malt, bottled by Decadent Drinks, a 20 year old island malt from 2001 and bottled at 64.4%. The outturn was 62 bottles. 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 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. 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. The distillery sits at the head of the bay, beneath a steep wooded hill.

At cask strength 64.4% it is muscular. Soot, sea salt and a sweet fruit, and the Oloroso brings dried fruit, fig and a nutty depth. 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.