Port Ellen 29 Years Old 1979 Old & Rare The Platinum Selection (Douglas Laing)

Bottled by Douglas Laing, this Port Ellen, a 29 year old from 1979 and bottled at 53.8%. A release of 261 bottles. Port Ellen was founded in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard and mothballed for good in 1983. A new Port Ellen opened in 2024, while bottles like this remain from the old.

The barley was kilned over peat to around thirty five phenol parts per million and worked through copper pot stills by the sea, to lend the elegant, lightly medicinal smoke of the south shore. An ex-Bourbon hogshead held it, the soft oak letting the Islay character lead. At this age the smoke turns gentle and oily, the spirit deep, briny and refined. Decades in oak soften the phenols, turning sharp peat reek into mellow embers. The refined, citric smoke set it apart from its more medicinal Islay neighbours. Laid down before 1983, this is spirit from a distillery that stood silent for forty years.

Undiluted at 53.8%, it is deep and smoky. A gently medicinal smoke runs over a waxy, briny lift, with light oak sweetness underneath. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. Embers and sea salt see out a long finish. This is a vanishing dram from Islay's most storied closed distillery.