Port Ellen 6th Release

A distillery bottling of Port Ellen at 27 year old, from 1978 and bottled at 54.2%. The outturn was 4560 bottles. Port Ellen, dating to 1825 on Islay's southern coast near the village of Port Ellen, was closed in 1983 in the whisky downturn. The distillery was reborn in 2024, but these casks date from its legendary years.

Heavily peated malt, kilned over Islay peat, set the smoky tone and run through copper pot stills on soft island water, for the austere, structured peat the malt is known for. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon American oak, gentle wood beneath the peat. Decades have eased the peat to a soft reek over beeswax and old oak. Decades in oak soften the phenols, turning sharp peat reek into mellow embers. 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.

At a natural 54.2% it is powerful and oily. A briny peat smoke runs over a waxy, briny lift, with gentle oak vanilla beneath the smoke. The texture is oily and coating, the smoke threaded with sea salt. Deep and elegant, the smoke lingers long. This is a piece of Islay legend in the glass.