Port Ellen 19 Years Old 1982 (Connoisseurs Choice)

This Port Ellen was from the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, a 19 year old from 1982 and bottled at 40%. Port Ellen was dating to 1825 on the windswept south of Islay and shut by DCL in 1983. A new Port Ellen opened in 2024, while bottles like this remain from the old.

Heavily peated malt, kilned over Islay peat, set the smoky tone and distilled in copper pot stills with water from the lochs, to give a maritime, citrus edged smoke quite its own. A refill American oak cask held it, keeping the distillery character to the fore. By this age the peat has begun to soften, settling into the oak and the brine. Years by the Atlantic give the malt its briny, oily weight. The drum maltings built in 1973 still turn out barley for Islay today. Three Islay distilleries proved one too many, and this was the one to close. Its smoke leans citric and mineral rather than tarry and medicinal.

At an easy 40% it is gentle and briny. A gently medicinal smoke runs over lemon peel and sea brine, with light oak sweetness underneath. The mouthfeel is oily, the smoke carried on a waxy body. Embers and sea salt see out a long finish. This is a vanishing dram from Islay's most storied closed distillery.