Whisky Online Blog

So after my previous post where I explained the motivation of this little series as being to attempt to wind up those who taunted me with their tales of drams wild and glorious while I was entombed in a whisky-free world for much of this year (admittedly by own hand and design but still), now comes the second part. Last time I gorged myself on some stunning Ardbegs. So lets see if we can match that with a modest bundle of Port Ellens today. This should also be interesting as we’ll look at examples from two extremes of the distillates sixteen year lifespan and at a variety of ages as well. Gentlemen… start your engines!

Port Ellen 1981 17yo. Cadenhead’s. refill hoggie. 294 bottles. 46%. 70cl. 

Sorry the photo doesn’t give too much away as the label is very faded.

Colour: Well Oaked Chardonnay

Nose: It’s clearly a 1980s Port Ellen, it has those background dirty tones but it’s younger, more grisly and much fresher. Huge notes of fresh lemon juice, oysters, mercurochrome, minerals, riesling, butter, cooking apples and pin sharp salty notes. The peat is green, smoky and very awake so to speak. Lots of bonfire notes, plastascine, icing sugar, cut parsley and delicate notes of tar. Brilliantly fresh and invigorating.

Palate: Wet rocks, pebbles, a whole coastline, manure, sheep’s wool, coal, peat bogs, engine oil, butter, dried herbs, wild garlic, what a brilliant profile. The peat is kind of resinous and encrusted with salt, salted cod, cured ham, brioche, lemon cake icing and more tar. There are loads of coastal driven and slightly industrial complexities in this one, I can’t be bothered to go through them, it’s just brilliant.

Finish: Long and sharp with more of these crisp coastal elements. Again the word that springs to mind is brilliant.

Comments: Tasting this, you begin to wonder how many of the casks now being bottled from this era in their late twenties are already past their prime. The 70s stock can age beautifully but can the 80s stuff do the same? On the strength of this it seems that they might well be over the hill… lets see with the next one.

Score: 92/100

Port Ellen 1983 27yo. Douglas Laing OMC. Refill Hoggie number: 6780. 217 Bottles. 50%. 70cl.

Colour: Very light honey

Nose: This is obviously richer and more mature than the 17yo but it is also much lighter and less intense, it is almost mentholated by comparison. Here we have lots of mean and honey liqueur, with big notes of herb syrups (does that exist?), wet pebbles, oily coastal notes and hessian. Notes of peated treacle (that bloody well should exist!), rooty and earthy peats, marzipan and fresh crab meat. Clearly the same distillate but fascinating to see what has happened after another ten years in the cask. It’s still very beautiful but that flush intensity has gone and in its place is this oily, honey driven, phenolic and more fruity creature.

Palate: This is much more what we’re used to these days with Port Ellen, hessian, steel wool, a ton of minerals, wet pebbles and granite, white fruits, dried seaweed, a slightly earthy dirty note and graphite oil. Lots of kippers, salt, lemon juice, tincture, iodine and tcp, quite medicinal really. It’s less herbaceous on the palate and more peppery, ground black pepper, brine and black olives. There is a a slight note of malt vinegar as well, like fish and chips.

Finish: Again this is long, salty, slightly reminiscent of wet earth, paint stripper, coal, white fruits, tar and old rope.

Comments: It’s still great, but it’s not quite a stunning as the 17yo, still that may be entirely down to the casks. However the clear consistency of style in the distillate is quite wonderful. Makes you remember what a great dram Port Ellen so often is.

Score: 90/100

Now lets get a bit younger…

Port Ellen 1978-2000. 21yo. Douglas Laing OMC. 342 Bottles. 50%. 70cl. 

Colour: Straw

Nose: Wow, a very emphatic and elegant young Port Ellen. Typically 1978 in that is much cleaner in style, very coastal, very fresh but also has more of the old style fruitiness still attached. It seems that 1978 really was Port Ellen’s ‘change’ year. Some wonderfully luxurious citrus notes of lemons and limes on top of warm honey, wet rocks, flints, minerals, wet pebbles on a beach, beautifully and perfectly coastal in my book. Develops then a kind of pin-sharp ashy smoky quality, bonfire ashes, wet wood smoke and kiln fires. Some slightly green notes of unripe plums, gooseberry jam, cut grass, turpentine and paraffin wax. Graphite, pencil shavings, earl grey tea, peat oils and smoked oysters. Quite a fragile and beautiful Port Ellen.

Palate: Much louder and more boisterous on the palate, concentrated peat oils, sea salt, tcp, tar, coal dust, peated mead (if such a thing doesn’t exist then maybe it should), linseed oil, kippers, pickled herring, fresh crab meat and seaweed. This gets more and more coastal all the time. Develops some sushi flavours like wasabi and soya sauce with more of these slightly fresh fish qualities. Lemon icing, some dried herbs, more drying notes of brine and minerals and a thick smokiness. Quite a wild Port Ellen but very fantastic. A very stormy dram.

Finish: Long and warming, back to the quieter, more elegant style of soft saline notes, lemon oil, cereals, fragrant bonfire smoke and minerals. The calm after the storm . (oh please!)

Comments: A stunning little Port Ellen. Probably sold for about £45 pounds at the time or something equally misery inducing. It’s quite incredible how many great casks Douglas Laing had over the years. Further proof that there was quite a bit of change in the house style between 1978 and 1979. Modernisation?

Score: 92/100

Thanks to Oliver for opening this wee beauty.

Now the same vintage but older again…

Port Ellen 1978-2008. 30yo. Douglas Laing Platinum. 423 bottles. 54.3%. 70cl.

Colour: White Wine

Nose: We’re clearly back in the style of 70s Port Ellen, more green fruit qualities and the peat is more concentrated, simmering and kind of lush if that makes sense. Still lots of minerals and coastal notes but also a wonderfully clean savoury quality with notes of bread, muesli, coal, soot, hessian, lamp oil, petrol, wet pebbles, moss and kippers. It’s the most fragile profile so far out of the three and but that fragility is very enchanting and works very well, it’s not at all tired or dead in any way, it seems to lend it a heightened complexity. With water it opens up with all kinds of aromas of lemon drops, seashore, sandalwood, bathing salts, seaweed, coal and fresh herbs.

Palate: Neat there is a wonderful delivery of smoked mussels, fish, crab meat, preserved lemons, wax, erasers, pencil lead and some background tropical notes like mango and pineapple. Develops some thick notes of vanilla cream, peat oils, smoked grist, custard and bonfire smoke. It also has some medical notes like tcp, aspirin and mouthwash but they have a fascinating aged quality to them. With water it gets drier and saltier with more coastal emphasis and notes of old rope, hessian and old books.

Finish: Long and full of glistening peat, motor oil, hessian, seaweed, coastal freshness and lemon wax.

Comments: I think there are better examples of old Port Ellen out there but that is getting into nit picking territory, this remains a stunning dram. There really isn’t a distillate quite like this, yet another true individual from Islay.

Score: 91/100

Now we’ll get younger again…

Port Ellen 15yo 1980-1996. Cadenhead’s. 62.5%. 70cl.

Similar series as the 17yo but two years younger and at a rather ball-shuddering strength.

Colour: White Wine

Nose: Understandably closed at first nosing, salt, notes of mid-quality sake, rice cakes, some plastacine and a flicker of green peat. We’ll leave it a few minutes but I think water is obligatory here… With water: Ahhh, another entire seashore in a glass, a characteristic that only Port Ellen seems to be able to pull off. Heaps of lemon juice, smelling salts, gentian root, caraway seed liqueur, coal, wet pebbles and a quarryfull of minerals. A further drizzle of water brings out wet earth, fresh leaves, moss, newly cut grass, green peats, white pepper, sea spray, brine and yet more lemon juice (lemon juice seems to be the calling card aroma of many a Port Ellen).

Palate: At full strength it is a burning bruiser full of engine oil, fragrant smoke, seaweed, sea salt, intense lemon juice and not much else, methinks water is again rather essential for this one… With water: immediately more expressive with lots of these very sharp and intense coastal notes which is very in keeping with the nose but it is also unexpectedly fat and buttery, these notes of freshly chopped parsley arise again as do notes of fresh butter, smoky bacon, charcoal, turpentine, mocha, cocoa and wild flowers. It has elements of a 1978 era Ardbeg, only with about 10x the power. Now with a second dilution we get lots of iodine, wet minerals, sheeps wool, some wonderful farmy notes and touches of wax. A stonking dram!

Finish: I’l let you know when it ends…

Comments: I think that Islay whiskies are too closely associated with the word ‘challenging’ these days. I’ve said before that either you like the flavour of peat or you don’t. This is one of those real and rare occasions where the word challenging is totally appropriate. The power and difficulty of this whisky lies, not in its peat level, but entirely in its bold and utterly uncompromising distillate. I adore it but many will find it just too much. It really needs water, almost demands it, but if you work with it, it’s a stunner.

Score: 92/100

And now… (drum roll please)…the cherry on the cake…

Port Ellen 1969-1984 15yo. Gordon & MacPhail. 62.2%. 75cl. 

Colour: White Wine

Nose: We’re in a different ball park as far as styles of distillate go. This is is much earthier, rootier, herbier, more medicinal and industrial although there is quite a bit hidden underneath that high strength again. More camphor, limes and more wax but as far as the coastal aspects of the profile goes we are actually pretty close to the two Cadenhead’s bottlings. Lets add some water… water turned it into a bag of salt. I’m not kidding this is just crab meat, salted cod, cured lamb, fish and chips and red wine vinegar. Massive profile. After time we start to get green peppercorns, heavy peat smoke aromas and notes of herbal toothpaste. Wow! Now we’re starting to get some utterly stunning tropical notes of guava, passion fruit and mango, ala 60s Bowmore. Those aromas just came out of the blue but they are getting bigger and more beautiful by the minute. A further dilution brings more tropical notes, more leafy notes and more fragrant smoke.

Palate: Neat… What a stunning delivery. The height of concentration and intensity is just another level from the others. Huge farmyard notes along with bags of familiar coastal character, tar, iodine, tcp, peppered and smoked mackerel, liquid creosote, old pipe tobacco, smoked cereals and little hints of green fruits. Need water… water made it more old style and seemed to accentuate those farmyard qualities. Further development on notes of black tea, chinese spices, gin, juniper, grapefruit, aniseed, more tropical fruits and buttered toast. With a little more water we get more of these spice notes, little wood tones, cereals, peat oils, smoke and tar. I’d better stop this is getting ridiculous .

Finish: Akin to downing a yard of brine.

Comments: There isn’t much to say here. It’s a huge privilege to taste Port Ellen from the 1960s. And it’s another totally uncompromising and totally brilliant dram. I was hovering around the 92 points mark until those tropical notes started to appear and then… well…

Score: 94/100

Lets see if we can top that one with another slice of history…

Port Ellen. 1974-1988. G&M for Sestante. 65.5% 75cl. 

Colour: Straw

Nose: At full strength it is surprisingly approachable, although the rumblings of a complete beast are unmistakeable. Huge, pristine saltiness with lashings of ash, lemon juice, seashore and brine. If such a thing as ‘salt oil’ were to exist I’m pretty sure this would be the aroma of such a thing. Whiffs of intense peat and white spirit, with further touches of granite, minerals, flints and wet rocks. Very mineral, intense and coastal basically. Almost certainly needs water and time. Although even as I type there are some wonderful tropical touches beginning to emerge, very similar to the 1969 but only in this one they seem to be appearing without water. Salted tropical fruit salad. Lets add some water now: with an initial drizzle of water it doesn’t change too much, still all on lemon juice ,salt and oysters with little tropical flourishes in the background. Lets try a second drizzle of water that should take it down into the mid-high 40s abv wise. Ahh now this is interesting, some oriental spices, hoy sin duck sauce, greengages, apple peelings, unripe grapes, tart young Riesling notes and cereals. You could play with this stunner for hours with water.

Palate: WAHHH! Jaw partially dissolved! After some medium-extensive recovery time I can confirm intense saltiness and lemon juice and not much else at full strength except raw, potent spirit. Hang on while I go get a five a gallon drum of water… with the first dilution of water it has opened up pretty spectacularly, lots of antiseptic, toothpaste, resinous peat oils, camphor and salted fish. These tropical notes from the nose are not particularly present on the palate, it is more focused on coastal qualities. Big notes of mercurochrome and a wonderfully metallic oiliness. After more water we get a huge, luxurious, drying, mouth-coating whisky that is all about green peats, menthol, wax, tar, tcp, salt, peppered mackerel, little hints of orange peel, bay leaves, whisky bitters, caraway seeds and hints of herb liqueurs (good ones). A true beast that is both wild, unsexy, near impossible to tame and, at the same time, utterly beautiful.

Finish: Long, resinous, crusty salt, lemon oils, salted wax (???), tarmac, smoke, ash, antiseptic and gentian root.

Comments: This is the sort of whisky you could only really have one dram of at a time, it’s so fantastically wild. You could also have a lot of fun with water as well though, it’s got enough strength that you can dilute in several stages and watch it change. It absolutely needs water to be drinkable but, like many of these super high strength (62% +) peated malts it can be fun to dilute and then refortify with a little more neat whisky (if you”re lucky enough to have a full bottle). The kind of dram you need to take a serious amount of time to get to know. Still a small masterpiece all the same, not far from the 1969.

Score: 93/100

And thanks again to Olivier for this one.

This post was supposed to be up before the weekend but sadly this was delayed due to my desire to party, thus shattering the idea of a closed distilleries ‘week’. So in reality it is now more like a closed distilleries ‘period of time’, but I think we’ll retain the former title as it is a little more snappy than the alternative. I didn’t post this before as I decided to take a last minute, well earned weekend break in Huacachina, or to give it its full name ‘Huca-Fukin-china’, as the PSF gringos have dubbed it. Huacachina is an oasis in the desert stuck on permanent tourist mode, a place where it is possible to buy all kinds of jewelry, trinkets, polished fossils, fabrics, drugs, postcards, cocktails, various local nik-naks and Peruvian themed oddities. However it is also a fine place to ‘chill the fuck out’, a deep elemental relaxation is easy to find in Huacachina, there may be parties, gringos, locals, sandboarding and pedal boats but there are also quiet corners of solitude and peace. Walking around it seems as if some hippy deity has flown across the sky and anointed Huacachina with a shower of randomly placed hammocks, comfy slings of serenity that close around you and block out the troubles that dog your outside life. It seems strange that only up the road is a nightclub that heaves and oozes at the gills with the sweat and beat of its dancing human populace. I ventured in there once before and found myself fed through the tidal crowd like sausage meat being forced into its casing only to be spat out the other side. A cavern of heat cloaked in a thick fug of evil music and staggering madness, strange then that only a few minutes walk away is silence and bright stars above the soft edges of a desert still warm from the day’s sun. A good place all round in other words.

Huacachina from above...

But back to whisky. I saved Glenugie for last because of all the distilleries lost in the last thirty years or so it is probably the most cult. Not cult in the way of Port Ellen or Brora, they have an almost mainstream level of ‘cult’ about them, cult in the true sense of the word. Almost no one who isn’t seriously into whisky has heard of it, and even then it has only really come to be known to a wider group of drinkers in the last few years due to the rise of social networking and a level of information sharing that could only be facilitated by broadband and wifi. Serge Valentin on Whiskyfun has played a big part by drawing attention to Glenugie’s consistently high quality and showering it with much due praise (maybe we Glenugie lovers shouldn’t thank him for this). Not to mention all the other bloggers, discussion forums and websites that have championed the deceased gem. Nevertheless it retains a genuine cult aura about it. Aided by the fact that new bottlings are very rare, and the legendary ones such as the Sestantes and Cadenheads of old are now so hard to obtain unless you’re unseemly wealthy.

The old Glenugie Distillery from above. A site that now houses and engineering works.

For me Glenugie is exemplary more that almost any other distillery (with the possible exception of old Clynelish) of a style of coastal/highland whisky that is utterly and tragically extinct in contemporary Scotland. It was located far up on the north east coast near Peterhead and almost all bottled expressions display distinct coastal aspects. The best reveal a fantastically complex mix of soot, fruits, wax, minerals, oils, metallic, coastal and farmy qualitites, in short about as old style and unsexy as its possible to get but also show-stoppingly beautiful as well. The one we’ll taste today is not one of the greats but it is still a fine example of the make and the stylistic diversity it was capable of offering.

Glenugie 1977-2010. Signatory. Cask no 1. 670 bottles. Finished in an Oloroso cask for 90 months. 58.6%. 70cl.

Colour: Amber

Nose: Hot, grassy and mineraled at first nosing with big notes of fresh tangerines, jaffa cakes, orange juice, marmalade and some wet sooty notes, obviously the sherry speaking first but it seems very well integrated. Becomes a little more austere with quite a metallic edge on top of beeswax, cola cubes, some quite sharp and extractive notes of wood lignin and big notes of green peppercorns. With water: wow! Lots of menthol, wax and hessian, suddenly becomes very old school and more ‘Glenugiesque’. Wet earth, clay, minerals, a riesling like petrol quality and soggy leaves on a bonfire. Eventually develops quite a few hints of honey and mead, very nice.

Palate: The attack is big and hot at first with lean tannins, strawberries, cassis, black peppercorns, odd notes of oatmeal and more metallic notes like oily steel wool and something slightly greasy. Orange bitters, lemon wax, dried fruits and some nice nuttiness from the sherry that still feels very well integrated. Develops some fresher, greener aspects like under ripe bananas, apple peelings and damsons. Water softens things down but brings out a massive kick of flinty, almost arid spices. Really lively now and very youthful, lots of green fruits and more honey like on the nose. Quite intense but still very enjoyable, one to keep you awake.

Finish: Long, camphory, powerful and gristy with lemons, oil, salt raisins and more fruits.

Comments: This is complex and difficult whisky, not one for beginners as it doesn’t even have the easy cloak of age about it, it really makes you work. I think it is also an example of a finish that really works quite well, although I would argue that this is not a finish, more of a double maturation so to speak. I think maturing whiskies in different cask types is good when enough time is given for proper balance to occur, a good example was Diageo’s Glenkinchie 20yo from a few years ago that had 10 years in bourbon and a further 10 years in brandy casks. The same is true here where the spirit has had almost eight years to adjust to the sherry influence. However I would still have loved to try it naturally without the sherry. This is by no means the best Glenugie, I think it is too disjointed in places and difficult to be 90s material but it is still damn good whisky and a great example of the kind of complexity and multifaceted character this distillery could produce.

Score: 86/100

While doing the tasting notes for this series of tastings I have also been working on individual distillery profiles for Whisky Online’s main site, you can read them if you go to one of the individual distillery sections (although I haven’t finished them all yet). What has struck me throughout this process is that most of the distilleries that closed in the eighties were smaller, two-stilled creatures that belonged to an era of whisky that was dying, slowly drowning in the loch of overproduction and modernisation that characterised Scottish whisky in 1980′s and now seems to be doing the same today. These distilleries were the products of the old generation, a fact evidenced in the styles and flavours of their distillates. They were the old school, distilleries designed to produce smaller quantities of spirit at a slower pace. Distilleries who’s long gone heydays were in a world of coal fired stills, worm tubs, almost natural, painfully slow fermentations, fresh sherry casks and old refill wood. A world of floor maltings, more localised production and self reliance. This world is easy to draw through the rose tinted glasses of retrospect but the old bottlings tell enough of a story if you taste them to know that things did change and have changed irrevocably. Names like St Magdalene, Glenugie, Brora, Coleburn, Banff, Glen Mhor and Millburn were unloved at the time and looked upon merely as unfeasible piles of numbers. They would fall away and in their place would rise the monoliths of the late sixties and early seventies, the Mannochmores, Auchroisks, Macduffs and Tamnavulins of this new world, multi-stilled blending machines that churned out distillates with characters that told a different story and spoke of a new industry. So when we taste these rapidly disappearing spirits today, the remnants of the old guard, it is difficult to taste them without a sense of melancholy, or an awareness of what was lost in their death. During the next decade stocks from these distilleries will inevitably dry up, what’s left in cask and bottle will become unfeasibly expensive and for most of us there will remain only tasting notes and memories. So try these spirits while you still can, taste the great lost distilleries in all their weird and wonderful splendor, when you find a truly great example it is so worth it. Despite the fact they they are lost, the joy in tasting them makes any sadness at their loss worth it, better to have tasted and lost than to have never tasted, or for it to never have existed at all.

Today we’ll do four Port Ellen as I think I’ve only done notes for one expression so far on this blog. As you are all no doubt aware Port Ellen is the Islay distillery that was sadly lost in 1983, a victim of Diageo’s cost-cutting rapier. Since then bottlings have steadily increased in price, although in recent years there have been more bottlings of this malt made available than at any other time in its history. With seemingly the entire existing stock destined to be single casks, regardless of quality, it seems we’ll still have some Port Ellen kicking about for quite a few years to come, even if much of it will be overpriced. However the greatest expressions are world class drams, ones that whip collectors and drinkers alike into a frothing, doe-eyed, nose-quivering, frenzy of delight at their mere mention. Today we’ll try four expressions from the latter years of the distillery’s life.

It's the one on the left.

Port Ellen 1982. Queen Of The Moorlands ‘Rare Cask’. 46%. 70cl.

Colour: Dark honey

Nose: Initially some wonderful notes of intermingling sherry and peat, akin to a great old Ardbeg perhaps. Then lots of Port Ellenesque brine characters bubble through. Loads of tar, treacle, old rope, oysters, minerals, kelp, medicine and thick, oily peat. This PE seems to be something of an Ardbeg tribute band so far. Glycerol, mouthwash, antiseptic, raisins, flints, paraffin and hessian. Wonderful nose.

Palate: Quite creamy and thick at first with some very drying, almost paper like peat qualities. More tar and old rope with kreel nets and further briny, sea water flavours. Very clean and not so much overt sherry now, instead lots of coal, lamp oil, minerals, wet pebbles, creosote and some big dollops of eucalyptus and fisherman’s friends. Very tasty and quite a big and ballsy PE.

Finish: Really long and still pretty chunky stuff, full of salty, engine oil, tar, peat and a little bonfire smoke.

Comments: I wonder what this would have been like at cask strength, it’s already quite a beast at 46%. Quite a full on PE and although the palate isn’t as complex as the stunning nose everything is pristine and in its place, not to mention that beautiful ‘Ardbegian’ peat sherry combo thing it has going on.

Score: 92/100

I'm not sure this is the exact bottling I'm trying as I'm working from the official Douglas Laing sample bottles that they send out and these only state the OMC reference numbers. Anyway, I'm sure you can use your imaginations.

Port Ellen 27yo. Douglas Laing OMC. ref: OMC1925. 50%. 70cl.

Colour: Straw

Nose: Much more subdued on the nose this one, in fact it’s surprisingly fragile for a PE. I think this may be suffering by comparison to the QOTM already. Initially it seems to give off fragrant notes of flowers and honey with hints of seashore and hessian in the background. Given time some medicine starts to emerge, soft notes of tincture, iodine and bandages with a little more minerality and richness beginning to develop now. Finally the peat shows up as if stuck in traffic. Quite pleasant in a very delicate and fragrant sort of way.

Palate: Again quite thin really, some elegant notes of butter, parsley, vanilla, menthol, fluttering peat, salt, curry powder, garlic and cumin. Feels a lot lighter than 50% but the classical PE kippery, oiliness starts to shine more brightly now with that trademark dirty edge as well. A little sulphuric earthy note in the background belies its origins. Notes of white flowers, camphor and more hessian mingle with bigger notes of seawater and raw sea salt now.

Finish: Cooling, slightly menthol, vaguely peaty and a little drying with sharp notes of lemon juice and tar.

Comments: Interesting stuff. Not a big PE but it seems to be a slow burner, starting very quiet and revealing more trademarks and idiosyncrasies over time. Very pleasant to drink but somewhat infuriating in other aspects. An odd PE, one that tastes quite a bit younger than 27 and would probably have been able to withstand quite a few more years in cask if people weren’t so desperate to bottle these things straight away. PE has proven its ability to age well in several bottlings now, what a shame that very few casks will be left aside to age beyond 30 years these days instead of being bottled as cash cows.

Score: 86/100

Port Ellen 27yo. Douglas Laing OMC. ref: OMC1955. 50%. 70cl.

Colour: White wine.

Nose: This one is immediately richer with notes of petrol, bubblegum and American Cream Soda at first nosing. Then lots of camphor, mint, honey, salt, creosote and mercurochrome, this builds and becomes quite powerfully medicinal after a couple of minutes. Concentrated aromas of hospitals and TCP with background notes of peat oils, early grey tea and a little lush green fruitiness. Capers, green olives, halloumi cheese, sherbet lemons and seashore.

Palate: Massive attack in the mouth, like washing down a trowel full of seaweed with a pint of antiseptic and bleach. Really sharp coastal flavours of lemon juice, white pepper, fresh oysters, hot smoked salmon, horseradish, tar, coal, linseed oil, plastacine, more olives, various dried herbs and vanilla. A stonker of a dram.

Finish: Massive and acridly peaty with an almost acidic citrus coastal zing to it. Really wakens you up.

Comments: This is a seriously big PE but not a particularly enjoyable one to drink. I find it a little imbalanced, and like the last one it feels much more youthful than 27 years, same comments as above about aging it longer. If you’re a masochist this will be about 94 points for you probably, but for me it’s going to be…

Score: 88/100

Port Ellen 1983-2010. Speciality Drinks for ‘The Whisky Show’.  60 bottles only. 51.3%. 70cl.

Colour: Amber

Nose: Very different from all the others, more austere but also obvious and fruity as well. Some really beautiuful old style fruit characters here, lots of green and tropical notes woven together with some oily, metallic peat and gun oil. Minerals, flints, steel wool, lamp oil, this really does smell very old style. More industrial and farmy than any of the others with some big notes of engine oil, creosote, paint, old boiler sheds and sheeps wool. Workshops, wood shavings and seaweed, gets more coastal with time, now there’s old herb liqueurs, resin and medicine. With water it gets more zingy, citrusy and peppery with notes of vinaigrette, gentian root, rocket and ground black pepper.

Palate: Slow burning notes of green fruits, plastacine, camphor, tar, old ropes, seaweed, a little molasses sweetness and some dirty sherry characters, but not in an unpleasant way. Rooty, earthy peat with a real palate slapping oiliness and notes of kippers, peppered mackerel and tincture. With water: More luxurious coastal flavours and big notes of toffee, the whole thing feels more relaxed but I think it also detracts from the complexity a little.

Finish: Oily, long, mouth filling and quite compelling, classic PE characters all over the shop.

Comments: This is a tricky one to call, it has some serious quality but it feels like very taught and highly strung whisky. Not an easy PE, you have to really work with it and let it open up, rewards time and patience this one. Like the QOTM at the start the palate doesn’t quite match the spectacular nose but overall the whole is pretty compelling.

Score: 91/100