Ledaig 2001 TWJ (The Whisky Jury)

A Ledaig single malt, drawn and bottled by The Whisky Jury, aged 24 year old from 2001, drawn from cask 202 and bottled at 53.4%. 248 bottles in all. Made on the Isle of Mull, Ledaig is the heavily peated malt of the island's only distillery. Water comes from the Gearr Abhainn, a private hill loch above the town of Tobermory.

The spirit was run through the distillery's boil ball stills from peated barley, to build the medicinal, briny Ledaig character. A refill bourbon cask held it, keeping the smoke to the fore. Past twenty years the peat is a soft whisper over a deep, fruity malt. Peat smoke and active oak settle together over the years, the smoke softening as the fruit deepens. 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.

At 53.4%, undiluted, it is rich and deep. Soot, sea salt and a sweet fruit, and the ex-Bourbon lends vanilla and a soft honey. 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.