Port Ellen 30 Years Old 1983 Cask #DL 10124 (Directors’ Cut)

Douglas Laing selected this Port Ellen, aged 30 year old, from 1983, drawn from cask DL 10124 and bottled at 53.5%. 102 bottles in all. Established in 1825 on the Kildalton shore of Islay, Port Ellen was brought to a halt in 1983. Its rarity made each bottle a collector's grail.

Peat smoke from Islay's bogs dried the malt to its smoky pitch, distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills on Leorin Lochs water, yielding a clean, mineral smoke with a citric lift. An ex-Bourbon hogshead held it, the soft oak letting the Islay character lead. Long ageing leaves a mellow smoke, a lanolin wax and a maritime depth. Refill ex-Bourbon oak, having given its sharpest notes to an earlier fill, lets the peat and the spirit lead. Salt air off the Atlantic worked into the casks through long island maturation. Collectors chase these closed era bottles as some of the most prized in Scotch.

At its natural 53.5% it is rich and briny. Drifting Islay peat smoke carries maritime salt and citrus, with a thread of vanilla from the bourbon wood. Beneath the peat run lemon, wax and a mineral note. It fades on smoke, citrus and a saline tang. This is spirit from the lost years of Port Ellen, finite for good.