Ledaig 2008 TFWC (The Firkin Whisky Co. Ltd.)

A Ledaig single malt, an independent The Firkin Whisky Co. Ltd bottling, aged 12 year old from 2008, drawn from cask SC5A and bottled at 48.9%. Just 325 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 distillery was founded in 1798 by John Sinclair, a local kelp merchant, as the Ledaig distillery.

The spirit was worked through high reflux stills from peated malt, for the smoky, maritime spirit Ledaig is known for. A refill bourbon cask held it, keeping the smoke to the fore. Around the mid teens the smoke knits with dried fruit and a sea salt. Years in oak round the smoke while the medicinal, tarry notes mellow. 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.

Undiluted at 48.9%, it is powerful. A maritime smoke over ripe fruit, and the oak lends vanilla and a soft sweetness. Soft smoke and brine sit behind the cask sweetness. The close is long, smoke over a sweet fruit. This is a bold, peated island single malt.