Ledaig 2005 ElD (Elixir) (54.4%)

Single malt Ledaig, chosen and bottled by Elixir Distillers, a 16 year old release from 2005, drawn from cask 82 and bottled at 54.4%. Only 249 bottles were released. Ledaig is the peated malt made at Tobermory on Mull, a distillery founded as Ledaig in 1798. The distillery was founded in 1798 by John Sinclair, a local kelp merchant, as the Ledaig distillery.

The spirit was made in the kinked copper stills from peated barley, for a smoky, tarry make with a sweet core. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, vanilla beneath the soot. Past a decade the smoke softens, the soot and brine settling over ripe fruit. Sherry wood and peat smoke twine together, dried fruit meeting soot. 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 54.4% it is muscular. Peat, iodine and a fruity sweetness, and ex-Bourbon oak gives vanilla and a light sweetness. A sweet fruit and a medicinal note sit under the smoke. The finish is deep, tarry and sweet. This is the smoky side of Tobermory distillery.