Port Ellen 32 years 1979 - 2012 12th Release

Port Ellen was founded in 1825 as a malt house and then developed into a distillery from 1833 to 1892 under the leadership of John Ramsay. The warehouses he built are still listed. The distillery was taken over by the Distillers Company Limited in 1925, closed in 1930 and rebuilt in 1966/1967. Production continued through the 1970s and closed in 1983, although single malt whisky is still available. When Port Ellen closed in 1983, Diageo demolished some of the buildings, reused others and destroyed the stills.

Origin and bottling

Distilled in 1979 and finally bottled in the year 2012 after a 32-year maturation. This is the 12th edition from the Annual Release series. Only 2964 bottles were eventually releases, making it very exclusive.

Cask type

This bottling has been matured in a combination of both Refill American Oak casks and European Oak casks. The choice was made to bottle this whisky at natural cask strength.

Tasting note

Colour

Golden yellow

Nose

Subtle peat smoke, tobacco leaves, seaweed, motor oil and rusty steam engines are scents that make us melt. Port Ellen the way you like it. Dirty with lovely fruity citrus notes.

Taste

Liquorice, seaweed smoked fish and toasted marshmallows give this whisky its character. Lovely waxy notes with nutty aromas of walnuts and hazelnut. Of course iodine and hospital flavours, but also citrus and grapefruit. Oysters and liquorice together in ''and tasting note does not sound best, but tastes fantastic.

Finish

The smoky flavour lingers wonderfully. Sweet pipe tobacco.

Overall impression

Wow, this is impressive.

This Port Ellen 12th Release has an average score of 91.59/100 points on WhiskyBase

Limited Edition Bottle No. 0749

Read Serge Valentin's tasting note on his website www.WhiskyFun.com here.

He rated this Single Malt Whisky with 95/100 points.