Ledaig 2006 ElD (Elixir) (55.2%)

A Ledaig single malt, picked by Elixir Distillers, a 16 year old release from 2006, drawn from cask 8 and bottled at 55.2%. Only 581 bottles were released. Ledaig is the peated malt made at Tobermory on Mull, a distillery founded as Ledaig in 1798. The stills carry boil bulbs and an S shaped kink in the lyne arms, which raises reflux.

Distilled from malt peated to around thirty seven parts per million, building the bold, smoky Ledaig style. It was matured in ex-Bourbon oak, a vanilla sweetness beneath the smoke. By this age the peat rounds into a sweeter, coastal smoke. The cool, damp island air gives a slow, even maturation. 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. 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 a hearty 55.2% it carries real weight. Wood smoke, BBQ char and a coastal salt, and the refill bourbon lends a quiet vanilla. It is bold and coastal, the peat and soot to the fore. The close is long, smoke over a sweet fruit. This is a heavily peated malt from Mull's only distillery.