Ledaig 2008 CDuS (C. Dully Selection)

This Ledaig was released by C. Dully Selection, aged 13 year old from 2008, drawn from cask 700127A and bottled at 54.9%. Just 312 bottles were filled. Ledaig, the peated malt of Mull's only distillery, keeps the old name the distillery bore when John Sinclair founded it in 1798. The single malts are bottled without chill filtration at 46.3 percent or higher.

Made in the kinked copper stills from peated barley, for a smoky, tarry make with a sweet core. A sherry cask wrapped the smoke in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Around the mid teens the smoke knits with dried fruit and a sea salt. Active casks frame the smoke without smothering the fruit beneath. 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. Both malts feed the Scottish Leader and Black Bottle blends as well as single malt.

At a full 54.9% it is intense and layered. Peat, iodine and a fruity sweetness, with the Oloroso adds figgy fruit and a warm nuttiness and the Palo Cortado adds a dry, nutty, savoury note. A sweet fruit and a medicinal note sit under the smoke. A long, peaty finish smoulders to the end. This is the smoky side of Tobermory distillery.