Port Ellen 1983 / 1997 Scotts 56.9%

Juicily oozing wet and earthy peat. All dripping with black oil, well on its way to becoming coal. Dirty minerals and seaweed tangled flotsam. Moist suede, damp with oil, glowing embers, trailing smoke and fresh ash pits. Salted kippers and preserved mentholated jujubes. A panorama of sights and sounds. Plenty of salt air and smoke in a humid seascape, where the weight of scents cling like oil to glass. The palate is a steel fist. Horseraddish, wintergreen, more salt and smoke. Deeply peaty and weighty in a precise and purposeful way that shows malt doesn’t always need great complexity. 92 pts