Port Ellen 22 Years Old 1983 Cask #DMG 2251 (Douglas McGibbon)

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Douglas McGibbon, aged 22 year old, from 1983, drawn from cask DMG 2251 and bottled at 46%. Opened in 1825 by the sea on Islay's south shore, Port Ellen was silenced in 1983 when Islay had one distillery too many. It became the most lamented of all the lost distilleries.

The barley was heavily peated, dried over smoke from Islay's own peat, drawn off traditional pot stills fed by the Leorin Lochs, for the refined smoke that made its name. An Oloroso butt held it, sherry and smoke twining together. Decades have eased the peat to a soft reek over beeswax and old oak. Time in the cask rounds the spirit, the smoke settling into a soft, waxy depth. Its smoke leans citric and mineral rather than tarry and medicinal. The casks were filled before the stills fell silent in 1983.

At an easy 46% it is gentle and briny. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and drifting Islay peat smoke carries salted citrus and a soft wax, with a thread of vanilla from the bourbon wood. Soft embers and brine sit behind the smoke. It fades on smoke, citrus and a saline tang. This is spirit from the lost years of Port Ellen, finite for good.