Unpublished notes on assorted Port Ellens:
PE3 (Bottled by The Whisky Exchange in their Elements of Islay line)
First come faint wisps of smokey bacon underneath a heady ozone, making for an ethereal boozy quality to the nose. Digging into it delivers salt and oils, maple cream, chesnuts, sesame oil, meyer lemon. I’m afraid to add water to this, it’s too light and ethereal. I’ll wait it out: Wintergreen, toasted sunflower seeds, finally some light sherry notes (grape kool-aid) now plastic, light caramel, green olives, smokeless peat moss.
McGibbon’s Provenance Port Ellen 23 YO 46%
Closed nose, just smokey/ashey with rubber, and harsh chemicals. Opens with water and time to reveal big lychee, honey, oranges, thyme, mint, salt, butter, a bit of talc, chamomile and corn. Not… particularly good, though the lychee note is quite nice.
Scott’s Port Ellen 1976-1998 22 YO 57%
no heat at this proof, just smooth butterscotch custard, with vanilla and orange marmelade. Just hints of charcoal, charred meat, and a dash of worcestershire. Some bitter oak arises, bringing lovely chili’s. Water brings out Bing cherries, gooseberries, mint, seaweed, and seabreeze. Sour oak comes to the fore now with oysters. More water brings red sandstone, and autumn leaves, and a touch of strawberry icing sugar before it’s carried away on a wave of peat reek. Finishes on an odd note of yeasty, cheddary notes.
Port Ellen 7th Release: 28 YO 53.8%
Lovely birch, mint, wintergreen, sasparilla, all holding a high, heady note with some meyer lemon aroma rising above all that. Bass notes include tar, salt, a gritty mocha note, mud, subtle black raspberries, raspberry eau de vie, black peppercorns, some under-ripe peaches, and light floral notes.
Provenance Port Ellen 24 YO
Good smoke presence up front with those unmistakable creamy, salty, vanilla notes that identify the distillery. Big notes of spent grains, some spearmint, peat moss, hot coals, eucalyptus, ash, smoked oranges, a little telicherry peppercorn, and some nice white pork.
Port Ellen 1983 bottled by The Whisky Exchange in London for The Whisky Show 2011
Big & Dirty, charred burnt camp-firey peat. Quite astonishing for a Port Ellen. Note quite complimentary sherry is very big as well but winey, caramelly and poorly integrated.
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