Port Ellen 14 Years Old 1978 Cask #70 – 77 (Dun Eideann)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Dun Eideann at 14 year old, from 1978, drawn from cask 70 - 77 and bottled at 43%. Just 3500 bottles were filled. Port Ellen, founded in 1825 on the Kildalton shore of Islay, was brought to a halt in 1983. Diageo's Special Releases turned it into a cult name.

The barley was heavily peated, dried over smoke from Islay's own peat, distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills on Leorin Lochs water, yielding a clean, mineral smoke with a citric lift. Maturation in a refill ex-Bourbon barrel kept the malt lean and smoky. 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. Port Ellen was one of three Diageo Islay distilleries, the one judged surplus in 1983. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings.

At 43% it is soft, smoky and oily. A coastal peat smoke carries salted citrus and a soft wax, with soft vanilla and a touch of coconut from the cask. Soft embers and brine sit behind the smoke. It closes long, smoky and maritime. This is a revered Islay malt from a distillery silent for forty years.