Port Ellen 25 Years Old 1978 Cask #DL 657 (Douglas Laing)

Bottled by Douglas Laing, this Port Ellen at 25 year old, from 1978, drawn from cask DL 657 and bottled at 50%. Just 604 bottles were filled. Port Ellen, founded in 1825 on the windswept south of Islay, was shut by DCL in 1983. The distillery was reborn in 2024, but these casks date from its legendary years.

The barley was kilned over peat to around thirty five phenol parts per million and distilled in copper pot stills with water from the lochs, to give a maritime, citrus edged smoke quite its own. Refill ex-Bourbon casks held the spirit, the wood Port Ellen is most often found in. Long ageing leaves a mellow smoke, a lanolin wax and a maritime depth. Years by the Atlantic give the malt its briny, oily weight. The casks were filled before the stills fell silent in 1983. Diageo invested heavily to raise the distillery again two centuries on. Long island ageing lends a saline thread to the deep smoke.

Undiluted at 50%, it is deep and smoky. A refined peat reek runs over a waxy, briny lift, with soft coconut and vanilla from the oak. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. The close is slow, soft peat over wax. This is a piece of Islay legend in the glass.