Port Ellen 24 years 1979 - 2003 3rd 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 2003 after a 24-year maturation. This is the 3rd edition from the Annual Release series. Only 9000 bottles were eventually released, making it very exclusive.

Cask type

For this 3rd Release, it is not clear what type of cask it was matured in, but it is expected to be a combination of Refill Sherry Casks and Refill American Bourbon Casks. This release is bottled at natural cask strength of 57.3%

Tasting note

Colour

Pale yellow

Nose

The smell of twisted grain being ground in the malt mill. This combined with smoked kipper and salty notes of stones lying on the beach well describes the aroma rising from the glass.

Taste

Again, a nice granular flavour. Lightly burnt popcorn and peat flavours giving structure to the flavour. Smoky tea and very ripe fruit unify it.

Finish

The peat smoke lingers wonderfully long.

Overall impression

This is an aroma and flavour that you only smell and taste in Port Ellen.

This Port Ellen 3rd Release has an average score of 91.21/100 points on WhiskyBase

Limited Edition Bottle No. 6106

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

He rated this Single Malt Whisky with 92/100 points.