Port Ellen 1982 - Malts of Scotland
Peaty, Leathery2024-03-10
Smell
We are sitting in a small old wooden hut by the sea on an old leather sofa with a view of the Port Ellen distillery on the island of Islay in Scotland. In front of us is a buffet of dried dates wrapped in bacon, figs, sea asparagus and some good German wholemeal bread, which smells wonderful. It is accompanied by salted caramel and chocolate-coated coffee beans. A gentle sea breeze blows through the open window and light smoke from the campfire with paprika, stick bread and smoked bacon.
Taste
We reach for the bowl with a varied mix of red berries, which are fruity, sweet and quite creamy. A few berries taste a little strange. They are the redcurrants - they must have been lying in ashes from an old barbecue. A mill with white pepper and a salt mill are on the table, probably for the peppers on the skewers by the campfire. The mills certainly won't be for our mint and herb tea. Now we are served the smoked bacon - it goes surprisingly well with mint tea. It starts to rain outside.
Finish
The campfire extinguishes. Woody and ashy flavours linger for a long time, slightly musty from the rain and yet dusty and dry.
Thoughts
The Port Ellen 1982 bottled by Malts of Scotland took us on an impressive journey. Interestingly, the single malt can be summarised relatively well in one sentence, which we would not have thought at the beginning: Here, the power of a very young cask strength whisky meets the complexity of a very old single malt, displaying all the facets that a top-class whisky can and must bring to the table in a well-sorted yet chaotic manner.
A little side note: No, it's not young, it's older than we are 🙃