The Darkness 13 Year Old Ledaig Palo Cortado

Age: 13 years old 

ABV: 51.3% - Natural Cask Strength 

Source: Tobermory Distillery 

Spirit: Single Cask Peated Single Malt 

Maturation: Finished in Palo Cortado Sherry Octave 

Size: 500ml 

There is only one distillery on the Isle of Mull and it goes by the name of Tobermory. So how does it come to be that this whisky is labelled Ledaig?

When a local merchant named John Sinclair commissioned the distillery back in 1798 he christened it Ledaig (Letch-ick) meaning ‘safe harbour’. The distillery, like many in Scotland, has been at the mercy of rising and falling thirst for Scotch whisky, forcing it to mothball and reopen many times. 

On a recent reopening, it was decided to match the name of the distillery to the far more easily pronounced town in which it sits - Tobermory. 

 Nowadays the distillery produces unpeated malts under the Tobermory label and peated malts bearing the original Ledaig name on the bottle. 

This whisky has been independently bottled as part of the Darkness range. 

If you’ve been with us for a while you’ll remember that the crew behind Darkness take top quality single casks and give them a final blessing of 6 months in a 64L sherry octave. 

 A Palo cortado cask was chosen to finish this peated malt from the Isle of Mull. Without getting too deep into the science of sherry, Palo cortado or ‘cut stick’, starts its life like a fino or amontillado and finishes its life like an olorosso. Only 1-2% of grapes pressed for sherry naturally develop into Palo cortado. 

 On the nose, we get honey-roasted ham, campfire ash and a hint of macadamia nut. The sootiness continues on the palate and is joined by hints of coconut and ripening strawberries. The finish is floral with hints of aromatics and smoke. 

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