Port Ellen 23 Years Old 1978 Cask #5268 (Signatory)

Signatory Vintage selected this Port Ellen, a 23 year old Islay malt, from 1978, drawn from cask 5268 and bottled at 59%. Just 564 bottles were filled. Established in 1825 on the Kildalton shore of Islay, Port Ellen was brought to a halt in 1983. Its reputation only grew as the casks ran down.

Peat smoke from Islay's bogs dried the malt to its smoky pitch, distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills on Leorin Lochs water, yielding a clean, mineral smoke with a citric lift. An Oloroso butt held it, sherry and smoke twining together. At this age the smoke turns gentle and oily, the spirit deep, briny and refined. Coastal warehousing lends a saline, maritime note as the spirit breathes by the sea. Few lost distilleries are mourned as deeply, or bottled as devotedly, as Port Ellen. The refined, citric smoke set it apart from its more medicinal Islay neighbours.

At a natural 59% it is powerful and oily. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and a smoky, mineral note carries salted citrus and a soft wax, with a thread of vanilla from the bourbon wood. Soft embers and brine sit behind the smoke. Salt, smoke and wax draw out the close. This is spirit from the lost years of Port Ellen, finite for good.