Port Ellen 11th Release

A distillery bottling of Port Ellen, aged 32 year old, from 1979 and bottled at 53.9%. The outturn was 2988 bottles. Established in 1825 on the windswept south of Islay, Port Ellen was shut by DCL in 1983. Port Ellen distilled again from 2024, yet this is spirit from the closed era.

Heavily peated malt, kilned over Islay peat, set the smoky tone and distilled in copper pot stills with water from the lochs, to give a maritime, citrus edged smoke quite its own. A European oak cask added a spiced, dried fruit frame to the peat. Three decades and more leave a fragile, elegant smoke and a deep waxy body. Port Ellen was matured largely in refill casks, which sharpen the smoke and leave the malt a touch austere. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings.

Bottled at a cask strength 53.9%, it is intense. The European oak adds a spiced, dried fruit edge, and an elegant, structured smoke runs over a waxy, briny lift, with a gentle vanilla note. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. The finish runs oily, saline and slow. This is stock from the legendary closed era, ever scarcer.