Port Ellen 24 Years Old 1983 Cask #DL 4113 (Douglas Laing)

This Port Ellen was from the independent bottler Douglas Laing, aged 24 year old, from 1983, drawn from cask DL 4113 and bottled at 50%. 300 bottles in all. Opened in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard, Port Ellen was mothballed for good in 1983. Port Ellen distilled again from 2024, yet this is spirit from the closed era.

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. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon American oak, gentle wood beneath the peat. 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. The spirit breathed sea air through long maturation on the island. Walter Frederick Campbell laid out the village of Port Ellen in 1821.

Bottled at a cask strength 50%, it is intense. A graceful Islay smoke runs over lemon peel and sea brine, with a light vanilla from the refill oak. The mouthfeel is oily, the smoke carried on a waxy body. The finish smoulders gently, oily and long. This is stock from the legendary closed era, ever scarcer.