Tobermory 18 Years Old 1996 Cask #DL 10361 (Old Particular)

Bottled by Douglas Laing, this Tobermory, aged 18 year old from 1996, drawn from cask DL 10361 and bottled at 48.4%. Just 314 bottles were filled. Made on the Isle of Mull, Tobermory is the unpeated single malt of the island's sole distillery. The distillery was founded in 1798 by John Sinclair, a local kelp merchant, as the Ledaig distillery.

The spirit was run through the distillery's boil ball stills, to build a nutty, waxy, fruity character. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanilla beneath the fruit. Around the mid teens the malt gains a fuller, waxier body. The waxy, oily spirit takes on cask character slowly and holds its texture well. Tobermory has distilled in the island's harbour town since 1798. The town of Tobermory was laid out by the British Fisheries Society a decade before the distillery came. The distillery's history is broken by long silences; its buildings once stored a local cheddar.

Undiluted at 48.4%, it is powerful. A waxy, oily fruitiness, and honeyed vanilla comes through from the ex-Bourbon. Beneath it run orchard fruit, wax and a soft nut. It closes long, waxy and fruity. This is the waxy, fruity malt of Mull.