Port Ellen 10th Release

This official Port Ellen single malt, a 31 year old from 1978 and bottled at 54.6%. Just 3000 bottles were filled. Port Ellen was founded in 1825 by the sea on Islay's south shore and silenced in 1983 when Islay had one distillery too many. It became the most lamented of all the lost distilleries.

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. At this great age the peat is a ghostly whisper over beeswax, old oak and sea salt. Refill ex-Bourbon oak, having given its sharpest notes to an earlier fill, lets the peat and the spirit lead. Port Ellen was one of three Diageo Islay distilleries, the one judged surplus in 1983.

At a natural 54.6% it is powerful and oily. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and a coastal peat smoke carries maritime salt and citrus, with soft vanilla and a touch of coconut from the cask. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. It closes long, smoky and maritime. This is a finite pour from Islay's most mourned distillery.