Port Ellen 21 Years Old 1980 First Bottling (Silver Seal)

This Port Ellen was from the independent bottler Silver Seal at 21 year old, from 1980 and bottled at 43%. Only 240 bottles were released. Port Ellen was founded in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard and mothballed for good in 1983. The stills ran once more from 2024, but this whisky predates the revival.

Heavily peated malt, kilned over Islay peat, set the smoky tone and worked through copper pot stills by the sea, to lend the elegant, lightly medicinal smoke of the south shore. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, the classic wood for Port Ellen. Around two decades in oak knit the smoke with the wood into a maritime, citrus edged malt. Years by the Atlantic give the malt its briny, oily weight. Each Diageo Special Release thinned a stock that could never be replaced. The maltings that survived the closure still supply barley across Islay today.

At an easy 43% it is gentle and briny. A briny peat smoke runs over a waxy, briny lift, with light oak sweetness underneath. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. Deep and elegant, the smoke lingers long. This is a vanishing dram from Islay's most storied closed distillery.