Port Ellen 31 Years Old 1969 First Bottling (Silver Seal)

Bottled by Silver Seal, this Port Ellen, a 31 year old Islay malt, from 1969 and bottled at 40%. A release of 156 bottles. Built in 1825 on Islay's southern coast near the village of Port Ellen, Port Ellen was closed in 1983 in the whisky downturn. 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 run through copper pot stills on soft island water, for the austere, structured peat the malt is known for. An American oak cask shaped it, lending only a light sweetness under the smoke. At such an age the peat is soft and distant, the malt waxy, oily and profound. Decades in oak soften the phenols, turning sharp peat reek into mellow embers. The closed years only deepened the legend around the malt. A whisky measured now in dwindling casks rather than fresh spirit.

Bottled at 40%, it is rounded. A gently medicinal 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. Embers and sea salt see out a long finish. This is stock from the legendary closed era, ever scarcer.