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

The Club Reserve releases are bottled by Torabhaig for its Peat Elite members' club. Torabhaig, opened in 2017, is the second distillery on the Isle of Skye, built by Mossburn Distillers in a restored 1820s farmstead at Teangue on the Sleat peninsula. This is Release No.2, a Bourbon matured single cask exclusive to the club.

Distilled in 2017 from heavily peated barley and matured in Bourbon oak, the spirit was bottled at its natural cask strength of 62.6 percent, without chill filtration or added colour. At full strength the distillery's well tempered peat shows in all its coastal depth. The distillery's barley is malted by Crisp at Port Gordon, the peating done over Aberdeenshire peat that lends a woody, cigar ash edge to the smoke.

On the palate a maritime peat smoke meets lemon, vanilla and a struck flint minerality, with a warming pepper at full strength and a long, smoky finish. A drop of water opens the citrus and sweetness. A powerful members' club bottling from the newest distillery on Skye. Bottled young but already showing the coastal character that marks out the distillery. There is a brininess and a sea spray lift to it, the unmistakable mark of a Skye island malt.