Port Ellen 19 Years Old 1970 (G&M)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, a 19 year old from 1970 and bottled at 40%. Port Ellen was founded in 1825 by the sea on Islay's south shore and silenced in 1983 when Islay had one distillery too many. It became the most lamented of all the lost distilleries.

The barley was heavily peated, dried over smoke from Islay's own peat, drawn off traditional pot stills fed by the Leorin Lochs, for the refined smoke that made its name. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, the wood holding back so the peat speaks. Around two decades in oak knit the smoke with the wood into a maritime, citrus edged malt. Time in the cask rounds the spirit, the smoke settling into a soft, waxy depth. Walter Frederick Campbell laid out the village of Port Ellen in 1821. John Ramsay developed the distillery through the middle of the 19th century. The drum maltings built in 1973 still turn out barley for Islay today.

Bottled at 40%, it is rounded. A smoky, mineral note carries salted citrus and a soft wax, with a whisper of coconut from the cask. Soft embers and brine sit behind the smoke. Salt, smoke and wax draw out the close. This is a finite pour from Islay's most mourned distillery.