The Bottle: Similar to my review of its sister, Tobermory, this is a very classy bottle to have on your shelf. There's some nice relief in the glass that refers to the Isle of Mull and the distillery's founding in 1798 and the label is straight-forward and unpretentious. Like the Tobermory, it makes reference to being un-chill filtered, but it doesn't say anything about natural color. In the Glass: Honey & bronze. This one's hard to read from a natural color perspective. I'm going to presume that there isn't any E150 caramel color in the mix, but it'd be nice if they would just say that. I should also call out that it’s now a bit darker than the last time that I had it. The image on distiller is very lemon-yellow, which is what it used to look like. No longer. On the Nose: Coastal peat and a hint of underlying coal smoke. This is definitely a salty islander, and you could easily be forgiven for thinking that it's from Islay. Just behind the chimneysweep, there's an interesting mix of marine notes and what I would think figs would smell like if you removed all trace of sweetness. A little bit Laphroaig, a little bit Talisker. What’s really interesting is that this doesn’t just ready like “peated” Tobermory. Blindfolded, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that this has anything to do with the unpeated offering from the same distillery. This is its own thing. Taste: This is where the sweetness comes in, barley sugar and dried fruit. Then the marine note comes back in with a smoky/saline/fisherman kind of thing (it sounds ridiculous, but you probably know what I mean). The development is mostly sweetness and the finish turns bitter and slightly astringent. There’s no mention of it, but maybe this has seen the inside of a sherry cask? It would explain the color… You will want to add a few drops of water to this one seeing as its $46% abv., it helps tame down the finish. Where this differentiates itself from its Ileach brethren is in the finish. There's something more savory going on that you don't necessarily find in many of the Islay malts of the same caliber. It's interesting, unique and pleasing to the palate. I quite like this. I’m a sucker for interesting and peated malts, and this doesn’t fail to deliver. If you’re looking to branch out beyond Islay, give this a go. It’s a touch more expensive that some of the more well known and similarly aged malts, but I like to think that more of the money is making it back to the distillery so that they can afford to take some creative risks in the future (this could be complete codswallop, but hey…). Update: Tobermory has confirmed that it is natural color.