Ledaig 2009 TTOW Endangered species “Ursus arctos” (The Taste of Whisky)

From The Taste of Whisky comes this Ledaig, aged 11 year old from 2009 and bottled at 54.5%. Just 181 bottles were filled. 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.

Run through the distillery's boil ball stills from peated barley, to build the medicinal, briny Ledaig character. It was matured in ex-Bourbon oak, a vanilla sweetness beneath the smoke. At a youthful age the smoke is vigorous and coastal. The phenols soften with age into a gentle, sweet wood smoke. 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. In dry summers the distillery has paused when its hill loch ran low.

At 54.5%, undiluted, it is rich and deep. Soot, sea salt and a sweet fruit, and ex-Bourbon oak gives vanilla and a light sweetness. Beneath the smoke run brine, tar and a sweet fruit. It finishes smoky, salty and warming. This is the peated island malt of Mull.