Port Ellen 29 Years Old 1982 Cask #CM170 (The House of MacDuff)

Bottled by The House of MacDuff, this Port Ellen, a 29 year old Islay malt, from 1982, drawn from cask CM170 and bottled at 55.7%. Just 60 bottles were filled. Port Ellen, first founded in 1825 on Islay's rocky southern seaboard, was mothballed for good in 1983. Port Ellen distilled again from 2024, yet this is spirit from the closed era.

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. Maturation in a refill ex-Bourbon barrel kept the malt lean and smoky. Well past twenty years the peat has mellowed to soft embers, the malt grown waxy and elegant. Years by the Atlantic give the malt its briny, oily weight. Port Ellen was one of three Diageo Islay distilleries, the one judged surplus in 1983. Its warehouses by the bay, built under John Ramsay, still stand as listed buildings.

Undiluted at 55.7%, it is deep and smoky. A graceful Islay smoke runs over lemon peel and sea brine, with soft coconut and vanilla from the oak. The mouthfeel is oily, the smoke carried on a waxy body. The finish smoulders gently, oily and long. This is a piece of Islay legend in the glass.