Port Ellen returns. In two ways
News of two remarkable events related to the legendary Port Ellen distillery on the island of Islay has just circulated the world.
The first is the news of the imminent completion of installation work at the reconstructed distillery, and its scheduled reopening in mid-March. At this stage, the exact date has not yet been announced, but several places in Diageo's messages mention mid-March. This means that we are only literally a few more weeks away from when Port Ellen's newly installed alembics will heat up to conduct the first distillation.
The second event, related to the distillery's relaunch plans, is the release of an unusual set of whiskies, sourced from Port Ellen. We are talking about the double - as the name suggests - edition of the Port Ellen Gemini 44yo.
Port Ellen Gemini 44yo is the oldest edition of whisky from the distillery to date. Prepared in sets of two bottles, actually crystal decanters. Both contain a beverage distilled in 1978, which went into three European oak barrels, pre-designated for this experimental bottling. At a certain stage of maturation, the contents of the aforementioned three barrels were subjected to coupage, after which they were divided into two parts and poured into two different barrels. First, Port Ellen Gemini Original Cask 44yo (54.9% vol.) went into a European oak butt cask, while the other - the Port Ellen Gemini Remnant Cask 44yo (53.6% vol.) - spent the remaining maturation time in a rather mysterious-sounding "remnant cask" at this stage. Not much more information about it is provided by the producer, other than that it is supposed to be the first maturation of this type in the world.
274 sets were prepared Port Ellen Gemini 44yo, offered in unusual, decorative white-colored cases, with a broken mirrored surface inside, further enhancing the impression of the multiplicity of this whisky. The price of a single set is set at £45,000.
It is worth recalling at this point that the Port Ellen distillery was a victim of the overproduction crisis that hit the Scottish distilling industry in the early 1980s. In the 1970s. Dozens of Scotch whisky factories then closed, including many forever, and their buildings were either adapted for other uses or demolished. A handful survived, among whom was Port Ellen. Its products, over time, with the growing popularity of the single malt whisky category in general and peated whiskies in particular, began to gain in value, eventually becoming the object of sighs of huge crowds of whisky lovers. Mostly out of reach for most due to the scarce supply and sometimes astronomical prices of the next increasingly rare editions that hit the market.
In 2017, the distillery's owner announced a plan to invest £35 million to revive Port Ellen and its sister distillery in the northern Highlands, Brory. The latter has also managed to gain a cult status among lovers of single malt Scotch whisky. Construction and installation work at Brora was completed in 2021 and the first distillation started in May of that year.
The case of Port Ellen turned out to be a bit more complicated and time-consuming, as here it was decided not only to rebuild the old distillery in a form as close to the original as possible, but right next door a second module of it was erected - a modern distillery that will be tasked with experimenting with innovative production techniques, various yeast strains, barley varieties, etc.
The current offerings of the House of Whisky Online include a wide selection of whiskies from Port Ellen, distilled before the distillery closed in 1983. We believe that in a few years we will also be able to offer liquors from the 2024 vintage and beyond, but in this regard we must be patient.
[06.02.2024 / photo: Diageo]