‘Single’ Port Ellen 12 yo Samaroli 57% ~ distilled 1970 vs Port Ellen 17 yo 1970 / 1987 Intertrade 62.4%
‘Single’ Port Ellen 12 yo Samaroli 57% ~ distilled 1970
Knowing that the privilege of trying this whisky necessarily means the end of one of four known remaining bottles worldwide puts the word rare into sharp perspective. First off, this Port Ellen does not roar down the high octane highway the way the 1969 64.7% does, and I think in that regard the 64.7% dominates. Instead, this storied Port Ellen presents expansive vistas at once coldly precise but rendered in elemental depth, evocative and raw. The peat is chiseled, full of oil stained and sharp minerals, dry kelp, streaked with sticky tar and muddy sea salt, abounding in phenolic depth and tiny subtleties but all in all eschewing raw power. Dry medicinal roots and forgotten boxes of mint tea accompany lemon pastilles, petrol fumes and crisp white smoke. Again the picture is introspective but crystalline. Cold soot on glass, golden vetiver in the sun, smoking frankincense sand crushed sage on hot coals. Gritty gravel laid coastal walks. This is a masterful composition of taut control and restrained potency, wrought in nuance and sharp turns. And, like I said to a friend, very much in the same boat as the Ardbeg Mizuhashi. 94 pts discounting for plenty of emotion, 97 says the satisfied smartypants next to me.
Port Ellen 17 yo 1970 / 1987 Intertrade 62.4%
Now this is much bigger Port Ellen, more muscled and hard driving but certainly a simpler take on that peaty maritime theme, as if one washed away the careful impressionism of the Samaroli and recreated the view in bright powerful strokes of a surrealist vision. It is altogether more blocky but confident to the extreme, and the louder oak props up this larger than life quality. The seawater is pronounced and dark smoke emerges from a sweetly burning pit into which all manner of petrochemicals, vanilla pods and aromatic woods had been thrown. Nets with ripening seaweek dot the shore, as does wet ropes covered in mud. Yes the grizzled and muddy phenols present huge power but far complexity. 93 pts
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