Port Ellen 22 Years Old 1983 Cask #DMG 2102 (Douglas McGibbon)

This Port Ellen was from the independent bottler Douglas McGibbon, a 22 year old from 1983, drawn from cask DMG 2102 and bottled at 46%. Port Ellen was founded in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard and mothballed for good in 1983. A new Port Ellen opened in 2024, while bottles like this remain from the old.

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. An Oloroso butt held it, sherry and smoke twining together. Long ageing leaves a mellow smoke, a lanolin wax and a maritime depth. Decades in oak soften the phenols, turning sharp peat reek into mellow embers. Laid down before 1983, this is spirit from a distillery that stood silent for forty years. Its cult grew with every passing year the warehouses stayed quiet.

At 46% it is balanced and smoky. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and a gently medicinal smoke runs over lemon peel and sea brine, with light oak sweetness underneath. The mouthfeel is oily, the smoke carried on a waxy body. Embers and sea salt see out a long finish. This is a vanishing dram from Islay's most storied closed distillery.