Port Ellen 24 Years Old 1979 Cask #6772 (Signatory)

This Port Ellen was from the independent bottler Signatory Vintage, a 24 year old Islay malt, from 1979, drawn from cask 6772 and bottled at 43%. Just 776 bottles were filled. Opened in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard, Port Ellen was 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 ex-Bourbon cask shaped it, soft refill oak that lets the smoke lead. Decades have eased the peat to a soft reek over beeswax and old oak. Years by the Atlantic give the malt its briny, oily weight. John Ramsay developed the distillery through the middle of the 19th century. The drum maltings built in 1973 still turn out barley for Islay today.

At 43% it is balanced and smoky. A gently medicinal smoke runs over a waxy, briny lift, with a light vanilla from the refill oak. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. Embers and sea salt see out a long finish. This is stock from the legendary closed era, ever scarcer.