Torabhaig 7 Years Old 2018 (Brachadair)

Torabhaig is the newest distillery on the Isle of Skye, opened in 2017 by Mossburn Distillers as the island's second after Talisker, in a restored farmstead at Teangue on Sleat. This is an independent bottling of the distillery's heavily peated single malt, distilled in 2018 and selected by Brachadair, an independent bottler.

Distilled from heavily peated barley and matured for seven years in Bourbon oak, the spirit was bottled at its natural cask strength of 56.5 percent, without chill filtration or added colour. The distillery tempers its smoke so that it sits in balance rather than dominating. Torabhaig ferments in Douglas fir washbacks and distils in copper pot stills, the slow approach building the balanced, well tempered peat.

On the palate a coastal peat smoke meets lemon, vanilla and a struck flint minerality, fresh and maritime, the smoke softening over seven years. A long, gently smoky finish. An independent single cask of Skye's young second distillery. Independent bottlings like this let drinkers taste Torabhaig drawn from a single cask at full strength. There is a brininess and a sea spray lift to it, the unmistakable mark of a Skye island malt.