Port Ellen 19 Years Old HB (Hart Brothers)

Hart Brothers selected this Port Ellen, a 19 year old Islay malt, and bottled at 43%. The legendary Port Ellen, opened in 1825 on the Kildalton shore of Islay, was brought to a halt in 1983. Its rarity made each bottle a collector's grail.

Peat smoke from Islay's bogs dried the malt to its smoky pitch, distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills on Leorin Lochs water, yielding a clean, mineral smoke with a citric lift. An American oak cask shaped it, lending only a light sweetness under the smoke. Past twenty years the smoke mellows and the oily, waxy texture builds. Refill ex-Bourbon oak, having given its sharpest notes to an earlier fill, lets the peat and the spirit lead. The old warehouses still hold the last of the closed era spirit. Port Ellen was one of three Diageo Islay distilleries, the one judged surplus in 1983. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings.

At 43% it is smooth and elegant. Embers of Islay peat carries maritime salt and citrus, with a quiet sweetness from the refill cask. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. A long, briny finish smoulders to the end. This is a rare survivor of the 1983 closure.