This is a pre arrival offering with a firm cutoff date. Timing is an estimate and can shift due to carrier schedules, port congestion, customs, or warehouse receiving.
GLASCHU SPIRITS LEDAIG 14 YEAR OLD, 1ST FILL KOVAL RYE BARREL FINISH
The Occasion
Not Our Label. Not Their Label. My Car Is on the Front.
Glaschu chose the cask. We took every bottle for America. When they asked what should go on the front label of a USA exclusive, I gave them the most American thing I own: my green 1973 Dodge Challenger, drawn tearing past Tobermory harbour with the distillery behind it.
Why? Because this is a peated Mull single malt finished in a first fill Koval rye barrel from Chicago. Real American muscle in a cask, applied to a 14 year old Ledaig, and it is quite a delight. The Koval cask hit this whisky like a big block under the hood. It is the first Glaschu bottling to carry a Whiskey Lab label, and the only one with my car on it.
Ledaig is the peated spirit made at Tobermory distillery on the Isle of Mull, and it does not taste like Islay. The peat is earthier, saltier and funkier, with a maritime edge that comes from a warehouse on the harbour wall. Fourteen years took the rough off it. The rye barrel put something else in.
Single cask, cask strength at 58%, natural colour, non-chill filtered. Distilled November 2011, bottled August 2026. 120 bottles, every one of them in the United States.
Distillery profile, Tobermory
- Founded in 1798 on the harbour at Tobermory, the only distillery on the Isle of Mull. The painted houses on the label are the real waterfront.
- Runs two spirits from the same stills: unpeated Tobermory and heavily peated Ledaig, named for the original distillery.
- Ledaig is peated to around 35 to 40 ppm, but reads as coastal and savoury rather than medicinal. Think bonfire on a beach, not a hospital.
- Owned by Distell, now part of Heineken. Independent single casks are where the interesting Ledaig lives.
Cask profile, 1st fill Koval rye barrel
Koval is a Chicago craft distillery known for its single barrel rye, matured in heavily charred new American oak. A first fill Koval barrel arrives loaded with rye spice, char, black pepper and toasted grain.
On top of Mull peat and sea air, that gives you two things you do not usually get in one glass: Scottish smoke and American rye heat. Peat up front, rye spice and char underneath, and a long, warming finish that goes back and forth between the two.
Tasting notes follow when the release lands.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Glaschu Spirits Co, with a Whiskey Lab front label |
| Whisky style | Single malt Scotch whisky, single cask, peated |
| Region | Isle of Mull, Islands |
| Distillery | Tobermory (Ledaig) |
| Age | 14 years |
| Distilled | November 2011 |
| Bottled | August 2026 |
| Finish | 1st fill Koval rye barrel, Chicago |
| ABV | 58%, cask strength |
| Volume | 700 ml |
| Outturn | 120 bottles, USA exclusive |
| Label art | Jay Roberts' 1973 Dodge Challenger at Tobermory harbour |
| Natural colour | Yes |
| Non-chill filtered | Yes |
The Whiskey Lab's Quality Commitments
- Single Cask: Ensuring a unique profile for each release.
- True Cask Strength: Delivered with the full intensity of flavor.
- Natural Colour & Non-Chill Filtered: Preserving the authentic character and purity of the whisky.
