Port Ellen reviews

This young Port Ellen, distilled in the last year that the (old) distillery was still operational, has been in the bottle for almost three times as long as it has ever spent in the cask. After all, this…

In 2014 – an eternity ago in my experience – I already tasted a Port Ellen that was bottled by Douglas or Drumlanrig . However, it was a 27-year-old from 1983, bottled in 2010. The one that is now in the…

This is another one of those golden oldies that has spent 24 years in the bottle now, more than it ever spent in the cask. And it’s from the legendary Port Ellen distillery, bottled by Gordon & Macphail…

In May last year, it tasted my best – but unfortunately also most expensive – Port Ellen ever. It was the 39 years old The Spirit Safe, bottled in 2018. This second edition in the Untold Stories – 9…

Let me start with the fact that this new Port Ellen will cost around 5.000 EUR, which is out of this world. You do get a fantastic packaging which is a metaphor for the spirit safe, which was first…

Let’s finish this line-up of Port Ellen samples with this official bottling from the famous Rare Malts Selection (the predecessor of the Diageo Special Releases). It has spent almost as much time in the…

Chieftain’s is, as you are probably aware, is one of the labels by Ian Macleod Distillers – independent bottler and also distillers as they own Tamdhu & Glengoyne and are currently working hard to revive…

You do not often see Port Ellen on sherry. This bottling was released some 12 years ago by Dewar Rattray (A.D. Rattray nowadays) by order of the Belgian importer The Nectar. I presume it was the part of…

In 2009 the Belgian importer The Nectar bottled this Port Ellen. Only 193 bottles were available and obviously those are all gone. Thanks to a Dutch friend, I was able to secure a sample. Oh, lovely nose…

How many whisky festivals have ever bottled a Port Ellen, I wonder. Not many, I presume. But in 2009 the visitors of the Milano Whisky Festival were able to purchase this 26 years old Port Ellen at cask…