Torabhaig Club Reserve – Release No.2 5 Years Old 2017

Torabhaig's Club Reserve bottlings are reserved for the Peat Elite, the members' club of the young Skye distillery. Opened in 2017, Torabhaig is the second distillery on the Isle of Skye after Talisker, built by Mossburn Distillers in a restored farmstead at Teangue. This is a cask from Release No.2, Bourbon matured and bottled at full strength.

Distilled in 2017 in the distillery's first year from heavily peated barley, the spirit matured in Bourbon oak and was bottled at its natural 61.7 percent, without chill filtration or colouring. The well tempered peat house style shows clearly at cask strength. 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 runs over lemon, vanilla and a flinty minerality, fresh and maritime, with a warming spice into the finish. Water draws out more of the citrus and sweet barley. A members' club single cask from Skye's second distillery. One of a small number of casks set aside for the distillery's Peat Elite club. White chocolate and a touch of burnt marshmallow round out the finish, a recurring signature of Torabhaig's young spirit.