
December 25, 2023

Wishes

The Time Warp Sessions, Christmas Special, a quintet of Port Ellen from 1971 to 1982

They keep getting better. New Port Ellen releases are always on the horizon, so we can hope that a connection will soon be made with the "new" Port Ellen, which should begin distilling before long. It's quite amusing to think we'll have 50-year-old Port Ellens on one hand, and 10-year-olds on the other. Well, we shall see. In the meantime, let's enjoy some brand-new vintage Port Ellens and a couple of old young independents as well, to get a taste of this intriguing future prospect. I believe we'll arrange these Port Ellens in ascending order of alcohol strength, which seems sensible. We've sampled the first two, in French, if you please, for Whisky Magazine & Fine Spirits, a magnificent publication, almost a coffee table mook, really. I highly recommend it.

A harmless photograph of Islay, near
Port Ellen, year 2000 (WF Archive)

Port Ellen 1971/1989 (40%, Jas. Gordon & Co., Auxil Import France)

The Port Ellen distillery was only relaunched in 1967, after having been closed since 1929, so we are discussing a vintage from the very beginning of its revival, although the stills had already been converted to steam by then. Port Ellen was operational for only sixteen years and fell victim to the wave of closures in 1983, but the malt quickly achieved cult status, initially through releases by Gordon & MacPhail in the 1980s, of which we have a fine example before us. Colour: gold. Nose: what impresses here is the purity of the peat – it's distinctly more taut than its neighbour Lagavulin, and also carries a stronger maritime influence, with additional notes of polish and paraffin. In the background, there are bitter almonds. It's precise, almost straightforward, with a clear and most attractive line. But all in all, it's a rather approachable Port Ellen at the moment, who would have thought? Mouth: it's almost like tasting oyster water mixed with a bit of motor oil and lemon. This is even more precise, more meticulously defined than on the nose, with a salinity that keeps growing. Finish: quite long and even more pronounced, with slightly oily oysters. Did you know that excellent oysters are produced on the Isle of Islay? Comments: perhaps in an effort to keep pace with its neighbour Lagavulin and as the demand for peated malt from blenders was growing, Port Ellen then became richer and more tar-like towards the mid-1970s. This version is real lacework and probably one of the best 1971 vintages from the racing stables of Gordon & MacPhail, while others, in my opinion, had been a bit more fragile.
SGP: 366 - 90 points.

Port Ellen 1978/1992 (43%, Dun Eideann, Auxil Import France, casks #70-77, 3,500 bottles)

Please call the Anti-Maltoporn Brigade. Dun Eideann was a brand from Signatory Vintage that was mostly found in Italy and France. Personally, I've never noticed any major quality differences between the two entities. Signatory Vintage was also one of the very first companies to offer independent Port Ellen, notably the dazzlingly fresh 10-year-olds that have become highly sought after because opportunities to taste this distillery in its youthful prime are extremely rare. We have already tasted many wonders under the Dun Eideann label, including Ardbeg 1973 and 1974 for Donato in Italy, which brought tears to our eyes. Tears of joy, of course. Colour: white wine. Nose: it's immediate, sublime, ultra-precise, rich, irresistible. Candle wax, soot, smoked salmon, seawater, a bit of grapefruit, linoleum and Bakelite, then very ripe apple rather than citrus in the fruit section. Also a touch of gentian, candle smoke, coffee beans, celeriac, leather, horse saddle, various cleaning products, extinguished pipe, new vinyl (LP)… What a whirlwind! And let's not forget the proverbial new tyres. Mouth: massive despite the low alcohol content. Very sweet and salty, with of course a lot of smoke, apples and citrus, Thai basil and coriander, a slight touch of chilli in the background... But it's so good! Let's not forget the oysters and, to put it simply, the whelks often found in Port Ellen. Perhaps a manufacturing secret. I'm joking. Finish: long, almost refreshing, still pure yet rich and full-bodied. Sublimely contradictory. Kumquat chutney on the finish. Commentary: the pure and precise complexity of Signatory Vintage's small batches which consist or consisted of taking a certain number of casks with simply consecutive numbers. Why bother when such a result is achieved?
SGP: 566 - 94 points.

Port Ellen 40 yo 1982/2023 (59.1%, Douglas Laing, Xtra Old Particular, 75th Anniversary, refill butt, cask # #17544, 290 bottles)

We've already sampled a sublime Macallan in this anniversary series by Douglas Laing last Monday. I must say, we have absolutely no doubt about this Port Ellen, or the next one, as both come from the same original stable, so to speak. It's worth noting the incredible potency of these malts after forty years, perhaps due to casks that have simply let nothing but water through over all these years. True casks for maturation, not just for flavouring (to put it a bit bluntly). Colour: straw (hooray). Nose: it's crystalline, precise, very maritime, with chalk, olives, and lemon, plus the much-anticipated tar and that famous old tweed jacket that has weathered all the storms and which we mention from time to time. It's a bit like an old grandfather's watch found at the bottom of a drawer, which starts to tick to perfection with the first winding. With water: fresh paint, motor oil, new tyres, and seashells. It's down to the micron. Mouth (neat): simply grandiose. Camphor, lemon, chalk, oysters, and tar. I repeat, camphor, lemon, chalk, oysters, and tar. This tension and peat are just unbelievable, I don't think anything could touch this Port Ellen, even after one hundred and fifty years in a perfectly polished cask. With water: and it even loves water, now expressing tons of different citrus notes, especially pink grapefruit. Finish: a slight metallic and chalky quality of the finest kind, atop the grapefruits, lemons, and seaweed. The tar lingers in the aftertaste. Comments: it's just incredible. In fact, all the new Port Ellen we've tasted this year, and there have been a few, have been utterly superlative.
SGP: 566 - 94 points.

Port Ellen 40 yo 1982/2023 (60.2%, Hunter Laing, Eidolon #3, 406 bottles)

Eidolon #2 was perfect when we tasted it in October this year. The only thing we might now miss is the element of surprise; we're even almost at the point of complaining about that (yes, S., that's right, but of course...). Colour: gold, a shade darker, or rather less light than the '75th'. Nose: in fact, it's quite different, more complex and consequently less finely honed and ultra-precise than its sister cask. There are old copper coins (pennies), very ripe cherries, hawthorn and rosehip teas, also more menthol and eucalyptus, even camphor, quite a lot of elderflower, and indeed tar, smoke, and maritime elements, but in more moderate quantities. Also, slightly smoked nougat, if that existed (we'd buy it straight away, wouldn't we?). With water: the tension, purity, citrus peels, seaweed, tar, wax, and ship's deck oil re-emerge... It loves water, as any self-respecting Port Ellen should (we do respect them all, ha). Mouth (neat): well, it's really brutal, full-on concentrated lemon juice, pepper and chili, with notes of slightly burnt black nougat. Water will bring order to all this... With water: Szechuan pepper, pink grapefruit, coriander, mandarin liqueur, a touch of sriracha sauce, even two or three sultanas, perhaps. Finish: now it's really perfect, taut as a bow string, with splendid citrus and a formidable peppery peat. Comments: to be honest, we knew we were going to be in the same scoring cluster, it was just obvious. This one was just a bit rounder, softer, more complex, less 'just a blade'. Love both styles.
SGP:566 - 94 points.

Regarding blades, and to conclude this on a note that's likely fiery...

Port Ellen 15 yo 1980/1996 (62.3%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, US bottling)

Apparently, Elon Musk bought up all the stocks of these young Cadenheads from the early to mid-1990s to use as rocket fuel. That's why, it is said, some rockets exploded in mid-flight, and there was a faint smell of malt in the atmosphere. Yep, I read that on X. That said, 1980 is one of the rarer vintages of Port Ellen, I haven't tasted many of them. Colour: white wine. Nose: 90% alcohol and triple-concentrated lemon juice hit our poor nostrils at first, followed by rhubarb juice and very unripe kiwi. We won't dwell on that too much, I think... With water: there you have it, diesel fuel, lemon, aspirin tablets (not that we need them), dried fish, seaweed, tar, and clay. Superb (water is my usual Vittel). Mouth (neat): diluted ashes in lemon juice, sweetened with cane syrup. It's very warm, rather straightforward at this stage, and quite brutal... With water: once again, it swims perfectly. Olive oil, tar, lemon, oysters, and ashes. You see what I mean. Finish: the same for a good length of time. The aftertaste is very peaty, very salty, it's almost like seawater and liquid smoke. Comments: in fact, it took us at least twenty-five years to realise that Port Ellen needed a lot of time to mature, or that it had to be tasted really young, like this one. Like the greatest wines that close up before opening again! It's true that all the PEs that were a bit disappointing were between fifteen and twenty-five years old, it seems to me, but of course, others were brilliant at these average ages.
SGP:468 - 92 points.

Well, we hope that we shall still have a lot of yet-untried Port Ellen to taste in 2024.

(Thank you, Andy, the Golden Promise, Salvatore and Whisky Mag & Fine Spirits)

Check the index of all Port Ellen we've tasted so far