Port Ellen 36 Years Old 1982 Cask #DL 12282 (XOP)

Bottled by Douglas Laing, this Port Ellen, aged 36 year old, from 1982, drawn from cask DL 12282 and bottled at 54.4%. 273 bottles in all. Established in 1825 on the windswept south of Islay, Port Ellen was shut by DCL 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 distilled in copper pot stills with water from the lochs, to give a maritime, citrus edged smoke quite its own. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, the classic wood for Port Ellen. Three decades and more leave a fragile, elegant smoke and a deep waxy body. Years by the Atlantic give the malt its briny, oily weight. The 2024 revival rebuilt the stills, but casks like this remain from the original distillery. Few lost distilleries are mourned as deeply, or bottled as devotedly, as Port Ellen.

Undiluted at 54.4%, it is deep and smoky. A graceful Islay smoke runs over a waxy, briny lift, with a light vanilla from the refill oak. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. The finish smoulders gently, oily and long. This is stock from the legendary closed era, ever scarcer.