Port Ellen 14th Release

A distillery bottling of Port Ellen, a 35 year old from 1978 and bottled at 56.5%. Just 2964 bottles were filled. Port Ellen was first founded in 1825 on Islay's southern coast near the village of Port Ellen and closed in 1983 in the whisky downturn. A new Port Ellen opened in 2024, while bottles like this remain from the old.

The barley was kilned over peat to around thirty five phenol parts per million and run through copper pot stills on soft island water, for the austere, structured peat the malt is known for. An ex-Bourbon cask shaped it, soft refill oak that lets the smoke lead. At this great age the peat is a ghostly whisper over beeswax, old oak and sea salt. Decades in oak soften the phenols, turning sharp peat reek into mellow embers. Few lost distilleries are mourned as deeply, or bottled as devotedly, as Port Ellen.

At its natural 56.5% it is rich and briny. A refined peat reek runs over lemon peel and sea brine, with soft coconut and vanilla from the oak. The mouthfeel is oily, the smoke carried on a waxy body. The close is slow, soft peat over wax. This is a vanishing dram from Islay's most storied closed distillery.