Port Ellen 30 Years Old 1974 Cask #6756 (Signatory)

Cask Strength Collection

700ml / 58.5%

Single Malt

$2343

Port Ellen, 30 year old from 1974 from Signatory Vintage, at 58.5%. Elegant peat, all briny smoke and crystallised lemon. A graceful, smoky Islay malt. Lemon, salt and soft smoke in balance. A relic of Islay’s most storied closure. Old, oily and quietly smoky. A vanishing dram from a legendary closed distillery.

Only 1 left in stock

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SKU PEL257 Categories Islay, Port Ellen, Scottish Whisky, Whiskey Brand: Port Ellen

Description

A Port Ellen single malt, selected and bottled by Signatory Vintage, aged 30 year old, from 1974, drawn from cask 6756 and bottled at 58.5%. A release of 266 bottles. Port Ellen stood on the Kildalton shore of Islay from its founding in 1825 until it was brought to a halt in 1983. Its whisky grew into a legend after closure.

The barley was heavily peated, dried over smoke from Islay's own peat, distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills on Leorin Lochs water, yielding a clean, mineral smoke with a citric lift. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, the classic wood for Port Ellen. At this age the smoke turns gentle and oily, the spirit deep, briny and refined. Coastal warehousing lends a saline, maritime note as the spirit breathes by the sea. Its smoke leans citric and mineral rather than tarry and medicinal. The casks were filled before the stills fell silent in 1983.

At a full 58.5% it is concentrated and oily. Embers of Islay peat carries maritime salt and citrus, with a touch of vanilla and cream from the wood. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. A long, briny finish smoulders to the end. This is a collectable relic of a cult Islay name.