Port Ellen 31 yo 1978 / 2010 10th Special Release 54.6%

Port Ellen 31 yo 1978 / 2010 10th Special Release 54.6%

When Special Releases meant something. This nose. A panorama of elemental beauty. Sublime yet majestic. Face to face with a tsunami of scents it’s impossible to reach for one without finding another. Let’s start with the peat, an unbelievably nuanced thing, myriad dry yet dark and oily with shining flecks glinting in the depths of these phenols. I also find a particularly fine suede note that’s very Port Ellen, and wet earth with a mere touch of ripeness. Thoroughly phenolic with ash, menthol cigarettes, engine oils, lit coals and popping firewood, more than a measure of medicinal tinctures like gentian, herbs and bark juice in rusty metal cans, dark resins in gritty cedar boxes. Behind it all the sea churns, eager to remind us it is master here. Sea salt, sea weed, spray,  muddy rubber and yesterday’s catch. At this point it is just a disservice to go on and on. 93 pts