Port Ellen 21 Years Old 1982 The Old Malt Cask (Douglas Laing)

From Douglas Laing comes this Port Ellen, aged 21 year old, from 1982 and bottled at 50%. 216 bottles in all. Opened in 1825 by the sea on Islay's south shore, Port Ellen was silenced in 1983 when Islay had one distillery too many. Most of its make once went to blends, but its single malt became the prize.

Drawn off traditional pot stills fed by the Leorin Lochs, to build a smoke at once oily, briny and refined. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the smoke in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Past twenty years the smoke mellows and the oily, waxy texture builds. The slow loss of the angel's share, a percent or two each year, has concentrated the liquid over decades. 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.

At 50%, undiluted, it is bold and smoky. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and crystallised lemon and a salty tang ride on drifting Islay peat smoke, with a thread of vanilla from the bourbon wood. A crystallised lemon and a saline tang lift the smoke. It fades on smoke, citrus and a saline tang. This is spirit from the lost years of Port Ellen, finite for good.