Port Ellen 16th Release

Diageo Special Releases 2016

700ml / 55.2%

Single Malt

$4329

Single malt Port Ellen, 37 year old from 1978 from the distillery, at 55.2%. A refined Islay smoke, with coastal peat smoke, lemon and sea brine. Refined, waxy and maritime. Coastal, waxy and long matured. Among the most sought after Islay malts. Mature, briny and gracefully smoky. Closed in 1983, its casks grow scarcer each year.

In stock

Available

SKU PEL008 Categories Islay, Port Ellen, Scottish Whisky, Whiskey Brand: Port Ellen

Description

An official Port Ellen single malt at 37 year old, from 1978 and bottled at 55.2%. Only 2940 bottles were released. Port Ellen, founded in 1825 on the windswept south of Islay, was shut by DCL in 1983. Annual Special Releases through Diageo sealed its mythic status.

Islay peat dried the malt, lending the spirit its coastal smoke, giving a coastal smoke threaded with lemon. The spirit was distilled in copper pot stills with water from the lochs. A refill American oak cask held it, keeping the distillery character to the fore. Very old Port Ellen turns ethereal, the smoke faded to embers over honeyed oak. The peat phenols fade only slowly, which is why even very old Port Ellen keeps its smoke. The closed era spirit is finite, and every bottle drawn is one fewer left. The spirit breathed sea air through long maturation on the island. Walter Frederick Campbell laid out the village of Port Ellen in 1821.

At cask strength 55.2% it is muscular. Gentle oak vanilla beneath the smoke, while a briny peat smoke carries oily lemon, brine and a lanolin wax. It is elegant and deep, the peat folded into the malt. Deep and elegant, the smoke lingers long. This is a piece of Islay legend in the glass.