Port Ellen 15 Years Old 1969 Islay Malt Scotch Whisky (G&M)

Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, this Port Ellen at 15 year old, from 1969 and bottled at 40%. Port Ellen, first founded in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard, was mothballed for good 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 worked through copper pot stills by the sea, to lend the elegant, lightly medicinal smoke of the south shore. An ex-Bourbon cask shaped it, soft refill oak that lets the smoke lead. By this age the peat has begun to soften, settling into the oak and the brine. Decades in oak soften the phenols, turning sharp peat reek into mellow embers. The 2024 revival rebuilt the stills, but casks like this remain from the original distillery. Few lost distilleries are mourned as deeply, or bottled as devotedly, as Port Ellen.

At 40% it is balanced 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.