Port Ellen 21 Years Old 1982 Cask #477 (Douglas Laing)

This is a Port Ellen single malt, chosen and bottled by Douglas Laing, a 21 year old from 1982, drawn from cask 477 and bottled at 61%. A release of 302 bottles. Port Ellen was dating to 1825 on the windswept south of Islay and 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. An Oloroso butt held it, sherry and smoke twining together. Two decades let the phenols ease into a rounded, coastal smoke. Long, cool maturation in Islay warehouses lets the smoke knit slowly with the oak. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings.

At a full 61% it is concentrated and oily. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and light oak sweetness underneath, while a gently medicinal smoke carries brine, wax and a mineral edge. A lanolin wax and a coastal salinity give it real weight. Embers and sea salt see out a long finish. This is a vanishing dram from Islay's most storied closed distillery.