Ledaig Batch 13 (TBWC)

That Boutique-y Whisky Company bottled this Ledaig matured to 21 year old and bottled at 48.7%. The outturn was 53 bottles. Ledaig, the peated malt of Mull's only distillery, keeps the old name the distillery bore when John Sinclair founded it in 1798. Burn Stewart revived the distillery in 1993, and Distell of South Africa bought it in 2013.

The spirit was run through the distillery's boil ball stills from peated barley, to build the medicinal, briny Ledaig character. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanilla under the maritime smoke. Long ageing brings a soft, sweet smoke, dried fruit and a coastal salt. 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.

At a full 48.7% it is intense and layered. Soot, sea salt and a sweet fruit, and vanilla and a soft oak come from the bourbon wood. Beneath the smoke run brine, tar and a sweet fruit. The finish runs smoky, sweet and warm. This is the peated island malt of Mull.