Port Ellen 22 Years Old 1979 Cask #5536 (Signatory)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Signatory Vintage, a 22 year old from 1979, drawn from cask 5536 and bottled at 43%. Only 738 bottles were released. The legendary Port Ellen, opened in 1825 on the Kildalton shore of Islay, was brought to a halt in 1983. Its whisky grew into a legend after closure.

The barley was heavily peated, dried over smoke from Islay's own peat, distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills on Leorin Lochs water, yielding a clean, mineral smoke with a citric lift. Maturation in Oloroso sherry laid smoked dried fruit over the peat. Well past twenty years the peat has mellowed to soft embers, the malt grown waxy and elegant. Coastal warehousing lends a saline, maritime note as the spirit breathes by the sea. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings.

Reduced to 43%, it is mellow. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and a coastal peat smoke carries maritime salt and citrus, with a quiet sweetness from the refill cask. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. It closes long, smoky and maritime. This is a rare survivor of the 1983 closure.