Port Ellen 16 Years Old 1980 (G&M)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, aged 16 year old, from 1980 and bottled at 40%. Established in 1825 on the Kildalton shore of Islay, Port Ellen 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. An ex-Bourbon hogshead held it, the soft oak letting the Islay character lead. By this age the peat has begun to soften, settling into the oak and the brine. Refill ex-Bourbon oak, having given its sharpest notes to an earlier fill, lets the peat and the spirit lead. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings. The peat came from Islay's own Duich Moss, localising the whole character.

At 40% it is supple and elegant. Drifting Islay peat smoke carries salted citrus and a soft wax, with a thread of vanilla from the bourbon wood. Soft embers and brine sit behind the smoke. It fades on smoke, citrus and a saline tang. This is spirit from the lost years of Port Ellen, finite for good.