Port Ellen 25 Years Old 1982 Cask #1203 (Signatory)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Signatory Vintage, a 25 year old Islay malt, from 1982, drawn from cask 1203 and bottled at 55.7%. 255 bottles in all. Opened in 1825 by the sea on Islay's south shore, Port Ellen 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. Refill ex-Bourbon casks held the spirit, the wood Port Ellen is most often found in. 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 a natural 55.7% it is powerful and oily. A smoky, mineral note carries maritime salt and citrus, with a thread of vanilla from the bourbon wood. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. Salt, smoke and wax draw out the close. This is spirit from the lost years of Port Ellen, finite for good.