Port Ellen 25 Years Old 1983 Cask #QW1312 (Norse Cask Selection)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Norse Cask Selection, a 25 year old from 1983, drawn from cask QW1312 and bottled at 58.6%. The outturn was 226 bottles. The legendary Port Ellen, built in 1825 by the sea on Islay's south shore, was silenced in 1983 when Islay had one distillery too many. Its rarity made each bottle a collector's grail.

The barley was heavily peated, dried over smoke from Islay's own peat, drawn off traditional pot stills fed by the Leorin Lochs, for the refined smoke that made its name. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the smoke in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Well past twenty years the peat has mellowed to soft embers, the malt grown waxy and elegant. Refill ex-Bourbon oak, having given its sharpest notes to an earlier fill, lets the peat and the spirit lead.

At its natural 58.6% it is rich and briny. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and a coastal peat smoke carries maritime salt and citrus, with a quiet sweetness from the refill cask. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. It closes long, smoky and maritime. This is a rare survivor of the 1983 closure.