Port Ellen JOHN MILLROY Selection 1982 - 23 Year Single Malt Whisky 70 cl / 56.8 % Schottland

The Port Ellen distillery was founded in 1825 by Alexander Kerr Mackay in Port Ellen on the Scottish island of Islay and became the property of John Ramsay in 1836. In 1920 Iain Ramsay of Kildalton, a nephew of John Ramsay, sold the distillery to James Buchanan and Co. and John Dewars and Sons Ltd. who merged with Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1925. From 1929 the distillery was closed for the first time. After modernization and doubling the number of stills from two to four, the distillery was reopened in 1966. In 1973 an extremely spacious malt house was added, which still supplies Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Lagavulin and partly Bunnahabhain, Kilchoman and Laphroaig. The peat used comes from nearby Castlehill Moor. In May 1983 the Port Ellen distillery was closed again. In 1987 it was sold to United Distillers (UD) and parts of the plant were dismantled. The license for the production of whisky, which was held by Low, Robertson and Co until 1992, has not existed since then. A reopening is therefore impossible. The distillery was largely demolished, the existing warehouses were used by Lagavulin for many years and Port Ellen is now a closed distillery.
Until the shutdown the water from the Leorin Loch was used for production. With a mash tun of over 5.5 tons and eight wash backs totalling 240,000 liters, two wash stills of 28,000 liters each and two spirit stills of 25,000 liters each, an output of 0.8 million liters was achieved.
Old original bottlings from the distillery are becoming increasingly rare and can almost only be found on the special auctions of renowned auction houses such as Krüger, Bonhams or Christies, but are subject to increasing price increases. The Diageo group puts the existing small stocks into annual limited special editions with small quantities. Despite the meanwhile high prices, these are usually sold out within a short time and have almost cult status with connoisseurs like Ardbeg, Bowmore or Karuizwa. The single malt whiskies from Port Ellen have a typical Islay-like, slightly peaty aroma, a very smoky taste and an oily finish.