Ledaig 2005 (Private Collection)

Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, this Ledaig, a 12 year old from 2005 and bottled at 45%. A release of 4100 bottles. Made on the Isle of Mull, Ledaig is the heavily peated malt of the island's only distillery. The distillery was founded in 1798 by John Sinclair, a local kelp merchant, as the Ledaig distillery.

The spirit was distilled from peated malt in kinked copper stills on soft Mull water, giving a sooty, coastal peat smoke over a fruity sweetness. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, a light sweetness under the peat. Past a decade the smoke softens, the soot and brine settling over ripe fruit. Refill oak lets the peat and brine of Ledaig lead. Burn Stewart revived production in 1993, and Distell bought the distillery in 2013. 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.

At 45% it is clean and full. Peat smoke, brine and a medicinal note, and vanilla and a soft oak come from the bourbon wood. A BBQ char and a sea salt lift it. A long, ashy finish ends on sea salt. This is Ledaig, the peated malt of the Isle of Mull.