Port Ellen 11 Years Old 1983 The Cooper’s Choice (The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd.)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd, aged 11 year old, from 1983 and bottled at 43%. 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. 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. Younger for Port Ellen, it keeps a sharper, more vigorous peat. Refill ex-Bourbon oak, having given its sharpest notes to an earlier fill, lets the peat and the spirit lead. The maltings that survived the closure still supply barley across Islay today. Salt air off the Atlantic worked into the casks through long island maturation.

At an approachable 43% it is refined. A soft maritime smoke carries maritime salt and citrus, with a whisper of coconut from the cask. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. A waxy, gently medicinal finish lingers long. This is a finite pour from Islay's most mourned distillery.