Port Ellen 23 Years Old 1979 Cask #6776 (Signatory)

This is a Port Ellen single malt, chosen and bottled by Signatory Vintage, aged 23 year old, from 1979, drawn from cask 6776 and bottled at 43%. A release of 616 bottles. Port Ellen stood on the windswept south of Islay from its founding in 1825 until it was shut by DCL in 1983. The Port Ellen maltings survived the closure and still supply Islay.

Islay peat dried the malt, lending the spirit its coastal smoke, giving a coastal smoke threaded with lemon. The spirit was distilled in copper pot stills with water from the lochs. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the smoke in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Well past twenty years the peat has mellowed to soft embers, the malt grown waxy and elegant. The peat phenols fade only slowly, which is why even very old Port Ellen keeps its smoke.

At an easy 43% it is gentle and briny. The Oloroso brings smoked fig, raisin and walnut, and gentle oak vanilla beneath the smoke, while an elegant, structured smoke carries oily lemon, brine and a lanolin wax. It is elegant and deep, the peat folded into the malt. The finish runs oily, saline and slow. This is prized stock from a distillery reborn only in 2024.