The Tobermory distillery is the only distillery on the island of Mull, directly
North of Islay and the isle of Jura. It was founded in 1798 by John Sinclair
under the name 'Ledaig' (pronounced 'Let-chick'). Tobermory was one of a
small number of distilleries that was established before the Excise Act of
1823 that legalised the production of whisky, but it was closed in 1837.

Tobermory remained closed for four over decades, but in 1878 production
resumed again. In 1890 the distillery was obtained by John Hopkins & Co.
who were themselves bought in 1916 by DCL (Distillers Company Limited).
Unfortunately, Tobermory was closed again in 1930 and remained inactive
for more than four decades. Although distillation of whisky had ceased, the
buildings still fulfilled a function - they were used as a power station.

A new company (a joint venture of a shipping company from Liverpool and Domecq sherry from
Spain) revived the distillery in 1972 under the name Ledaig Distillery Ltd. - the same name that
was used when the distillery was founded. This effectively means that up until this point the
distillery had been closed for nearly half of its life. And the restart in 1972 didn't break that bad
habit; the new owners filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and the distillery was closed again, this time
for three years. In 1978 the distillery was purchased by Kirkleavington Property Co in Yorkshire.
This company (an estate agent) formed a new company to run the distillery (Tobermory Distillers
Limited), rented out some of the buildings for cheese storage and converted others to flats. 

1) The town of Tobermory was founded in 1788 and some of the people involved were the Stevenson brothers of Oban. A few years later they started whisky production in their own part of Scotland; they got the Oban distillery up and running a few years before the Tobermory distillery opened its doors. So, in the case of Tobermory the distillery was founded when the town already existed; the town of Oban grew around the distillery.

2) The current distillery buildings of Tobermory / Ledaig were erected during its first period of operation which continued until 1837.

3) The name 'Ledaig' means 'safe haven' in Gaelic.

4) During the early noughties the distillery released two lightly peated expressions of Ledaig; bottled at 42% ABV and without an age statement - 'Ledaig Original' at £18.95 per bottle and 'Ledaig Sherry' at £21.95 per bottle.
 

Tobermory 35yo 1972/2008 (49.4%, Whisky Doris, First fill dark sherry, 191 Bts.)
Nose: Wood, but balanced with fruit and some organics. Very special. Apple syrup.
Organics growing stronger. Very complex, although some elements remain quite subtle.
Taste: Sweet and peaty with loads of organics. Leathery. Serious, but with a playful undercurrent.
Perhaps just a tad weak. A surprising touch of liquorice and salmiak after fifteen minutes. Too woody.
Score: 89 points - This came close to gold at the MM Awards 2008.

Ledaig 30yo 1974/2005 (48.7%, Signatory, Cask #3223, Shery hogshead, 208 bottles)
Nose: Heavy sherry - no surprise given the deep brown colour. Spices. Organics. Classic and brilliant.
Balsamico vinegar. A sherry monster par excellenence. One of the malts with the highest gold potential.
Taste: Heavy, smoky sherry and spices. Fits the bouquet like a glove. Lovely playful fruity notes. Some smoke?
Excellent chewy tannins. Powdered coffee. A hint of bitterness that's just enough for this malt. Almost perfect.
Score: 93 points - quite extreme, leaving not a trace of distillery character, if you ask me. What could it be?
Revision: Sherry fruits and spices in the nose. Maggi. A classic! The nose seems to drop off fairly soon, though.
On the palate it was sweet and smooth and just brilliant. And just when the sweetness fades there's peat.
At first I was inclined to crank it back a few notches, but over time it convinced me 93 points is only fair.

Tobermory 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2002)
Nose: Oily. Not very expressive at first. Hint of pine? Eucalyptus? Maggi?
Taste: Oily as well. Hot and gritty in the centre. Just not my type of malt.
Score: 54 points - no significant improvement on the NAS I tried a few years ago - in fact, I think I like this even less.

Ledaig 7yo 'Peated' (43%, OB, short clear bottle, Bottled +/- 2002, Imported by Auxil, France)
(I'm not sure if this expression is intended as the replacement of the 'NAS' version or an addition to the range.)
Nose: Soft and a little oily. Not very expressive. Wait - some peat (not much). Herbal.
Chloride. Spirity. The peat drifted away to the background and didn't return.
Needs a while. Then things developed into a fruitier direction with tangerines.
Orange skins? Hints of menthol sweets. Something creamy. Intruiging.
Taste: Quite a bite, followed by a salty, peaty burn. Sulphur? Some organics.
Very dry, although it grows fruitier and sourish over time. Bitter burn in the finish.
Score: 77 points - an 'Islay Light' and decent value to boot. Still, I prefer the real stuff.

Ledaig NAS 'Peated' 2000 Edition (42%, OB, Standard version)
Nose: Youthful. Briny and a little oily. Some smoke. Diluted power. Beer. Salt.
Hint of citrus? A faint whiff of dry peat drifts along the sweet fruity background.
The peaty component grows stronger for the first 15 minutes but then it drops off.
Taste: Sweet start with a clear toffee note. Liquorice? Then the powerful burn starts.
Once again, I tasted a beer-like bitterness on the palate. The finish is bitter as well.
Score: 78 points - a very pleasant surprise, especially when you give it 15 minutes. Although it doesn't strike me quite the same as before I think we can blame oxidation for that. To bad I missed this one when it was released; just like the sherry finished version it was sold for just 28 Euro's. Decent value.

Ledaig NAS 'Peated' 2000 Edition (42%, OB, Sherry Finish)
Nose: Indeed, sherry. Acidic. Citrus. A Fruity sweetness hangs around for quite a while.
Wait - now I get some peat! Smoke and organics. Hey, some breathing worked wonders!
Horse sweat. Chloride. Rubber. This really becomes much more interesting with time.
Taste: Rotting wood. Burnt caramel. Menthol? Sherried and woody after 15 minutes.
Smoke. Sour finish. Not really my style. Artificial; not as balanced as the standard version.
Score: 70 points - this is very strange - unlike most other malts I know, this seemed to drop off in the months after I opened the bottle, but after almost 18 months the nose really blossomed again. Based on the nose, I'd go with at least 76 or 77 points right now. Unfortunately for Ledaig, I won't 'count' any changes that occur more than a year after I opened the bottle. Quite entertaining, though.

Ledaig 5yo 1993/1998 (43%, The Ultimate, Oak Cask #28)
Nose: Whow! Clean. Spirity. Fruit, salt and even some peat. Spicy with lots of spunk.
Smoke, citrus and a little oil. Cattle feed. Dusty. Fruit and peat keep popping up.
Coastal. A little bit of everything, but it's pretty much dead after a few minutes.
Taste: Soft start, but it picks up after a few seconds. Good sweet burn. Toffee.
It grows sour and woody quickly, losing a few points in the process. Bitter finish.
Score: 73 points - a very decent score for a 5yo malt. I have to say I rated it even higher when I opened the bottle a few months ago. It seems this confirms my suspicions about young malts being more vulnerable to oxidation than older and/or cask strength whiskies. Will have to do some more thinking on that...

Ledaig 20yo (43%, OB, tall clear bottle, Bottled +/- 1997)
Nose: Oooff! Paint thinner. Something chemical. Vegetables. Dusty.
More sherried than the younger versions. Fruity with some smoke. Winegums?
After some breathing the coastal elements grow stronger - no peat, though.
Taste: Smoke. Dry. Hot. Long. Wow! A little bitter, but not unpleasant. Resin?
Pinch of salt. After a few minutes it grows fruitier with a sherried, woody finish.
Score: 79 points - it loses a few points on the nose, which is almost non-existent at first.
It grows more and more interesting over time. All in all, this is quite an inttriguing malt. Worth a try.

Tobermory NAS (40%, OB, Bulky, green bottle, Bottled +/- 1998)
Nose: Very restrained. Flat. A bit oily with a very faint hint of peat.
Cod oil. Notably sweeter with time, with impressions of mint and candy.
Taste: A bit sweet and malty, with some distant peat. Milk powder?
Lacks balance and complexity. Sweet, salt and bitter take turns in the finish.
Score: 55 points - this is really nothing spectacular.
 

These were not all the (official & independent) expressions of Tobermory / Ledaig whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions.

On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery.
Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 

After the take-over the distillery ran for only a few years; from 1982 to 1989 Tobermory was silent again. After production had resumed at the end of the 1980's the distillery was obtained by Burn Stewart Distillers who paid a friendly 600,000 GBP for the distillery itself and another 200,000 for the supplies of whisky.

These days the brand name 'Tobermory' is used for all their
unpeated malt whisky, while the (lightly) peated whisky is sold
as 'Ledaig'. The malt whisky produced on Mull is first shipped to
the Deanston distillery on the mainland for filling into casks and
then transported onwards to Bunnahabhain on Islay for ageing.

The purchase of Tobermory / Ledaig
by Burn Stewart took place in 1993.
In 2002, almost a decade later, Burn
Stewart was acquired by a venture
capital company; CL Financial from
Trinidad & Tobago. Overall sales of
the Tobermory and Ledaig whiskies
is down, but the new owners did
inspire some great official bottlings.

I wrote earlier that Tobermory / Ledaig was the only distillery on Mull, but I should have
been more precise; it was (as far as I know) the only LEGAL distillery on the island. In
fact, the first time when John Sinclair asked for permission to start a distillery on Mull
his request was turned down because there were already two stills in operation in the
area. The local dignitaries were willing to grant John permission for the construction of
a brewery, but he decided to apply again for permission the next year. This time his
request was granted. The competing distilleries (not entirely legal I presume) have
vanished in the mists of history, but Tobermory has managed to survive until today.
 
However, Tobermory / Ledaig has been inactive for large parts of its life.
The first time the distillery closed was in 1837, and it remained closed for well over
four decades before it was revived again in 1878. For a few decades the distillery
ran uninterrupted (but under different owners), until it was closed again in 1930.
During World War II Tobermory / Ledaig was used as a canteen for sailors who
were stationed at the naval base at Tobermory. The end of the war in 1945 did
not mean the distillery was re-opened though (which was the case with most of
the distilleries that were closed after 1940) - that didn't happen until 1972. Over
the last decades Tobermory / Ledaig regularly went in and out of production.
 
Confusion about the distillery wasn't helped by the fact that the whisky that is
produced there is sold under two different names (Tobermory and Ledaig) and
that the ABV (proof or alcohol percentage) has fluctuated quite a bit between
official bottlings. To make matters worse two very different types of whisky are
currently sold as 'Tobermory' official bottlings; a vatted malt whisky and a blend.
 
According to their website, the malt whisky, identified as 'Tobermory Malt Scotch
Whisky' is presented in a bottle with an enamelled label. It is a vatted malt that
contains some Tobermory whiskies of up to 20-years old and proportions of young
spirit from other distilleries. The latter has a conventional label and is described as
'Tobermory Blended Scotch Whisky'. If the information on the website (last checked
in 2009) is correct they currently don't bottle a whisky under the name 'Ledaig'
themselves (although independants bottlers do) and they currently don't bottle
a single malt whisky under the name 'Tobermory'.