Comments on: Review: Port Ellen 30 year old (2009 release)

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 16:44:24 +0000

just had my first taste of the 9th, a fresh crack on Friday night. amidst the smoke, brine and damp earth, i distinctly detected notes of fresh summer strawberry. very unexpected, and very nice…

By: William

William — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:39:05 +0000

@John and Yossi: I’ve been chewing beach pebbles all day, but they’re nothing like a glass of whisky…

By: Diageo 2009 Special Releases: Brora 30 year « Scotch Hobbyist’s Blog

Diageo 2009 Special Releases: Brora 30 year « Scotch Hobbyist’s Blog — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:34:40 +0000

[...] Malt Advocate – John Hansell really digs this one, and comments on how well it holds up for its age. 93 points! [...]

By: Yossi

Yossi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:20:48 +0000

@John – I will try this. Very interesting. Have a good weekend

By: Best in Blog #59: Dr. Whisky and the Rotten Tomatoes of Single Malts | Whisky Party

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:27:19 +0000

[...] John Hansell speaks highly of the new Port Ellen 9th Release from Diageo. [...]

By: John Hansell

John Hansell — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:53:49 +0000

Yossi, the next time you are at a beach where there are pebbles, not sand (like on Islay), pick up a handful, and smell them. And you can also imagine what they taste like.

By: Bamber

Bamber — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:31:25 +0000

@claus

Agree with you about the first Bladnoch forum bottling, but a lot of people don’t – they say it’s sulphury, but I don’t get that.

Port Ellen is behind Ardbeg and Lagavulin for me, but ahead of the other Islays. Not too bothered about it myself and certainly not willing to shell out these kind of prices for the stuff.

By: Andrew Ferguson

Andrew Ferguson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:25:22 +0000

I have to disagree with Claus, I don’t think Port Ellen is an overated Islay whisky. I think it is an outlier, like Laphroaig there is no other Islay whisky quite like it, and John’s comment about it being an old fashioned Islay is apt. We are now getting to the point where many of the surviving casks of Port Ellen are looking long in the tooth. Price and availability asside, we won’t be seeing many quality bottlings of Port Ellen much longer. Rumours persist that Diageo’s stocks are running low and no one knows just how long they will last. Among independents, Douglas Laing’s stocks are deep, but sooner or later these too will become too old or too weak to bottle. It is true that some bottlings of Port Ellen have had varying traces of sulphur, but that is true of many whiskies, especially single casks, from this vintage, and it is not always a bad thing. That there is so much variance in one bottling to the next of Port Ellen from Douglas Laing or others does credit to the whisky’s style. I’ve had many independent bottlings of Port Ellen from Douglas Laing or Signatory which I would rank among the best Diageo bottlings, and often at less than half the price.

Slainte!
Andrew Ferguson
Calgary, Canada

By: Yossi

Yossi — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:00:48 +0000

Hi John, nice review. You had me until you mentioned “Beach Pebbles”. Could you explain this to me? Thanks!

By: BigMac

BigMac — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:10:04 +0000

IMO then Port Ellen is the most overrated Islay whisky there is…. I feel like Port Ellen is a ‘hit and miss’ whisky – That said, then of course there are good and also great bottlings out there, and all off the Annual Releases I’ve had (2-7)have been great , but if Diageo didn’t have access to the best casks, then who would, right?

I’ve had from bad to excellent Port Ellens for some years now – and people at tastings (at least at our club tastings) always vote it best whisky of the evening, just because it’s closed and an Islay whisky – now that’s sad and its actually annoys me since the general Port Ellen IMO seems underpowered in taste to the other Diageos, Caol Ila and lagavulin – then there has been some unlucky cask releases from the Indie bottlers, most notibably from Douglas Laing in the OMC-series – several has ben heavyly sulphured, even from casks that by the looks of it haven’t had that much sherry influence – but I guess we can count on seeing all Indie owned casks of Port Ellen bottled, drinkable or not – and that’s sad!

Positive note: One of the best Port Ellens I’ve had in a while was the first Bladnoch forum version at 60,4% – that one left in the glass for a good half hour before approaching it was sheer bliss! But they are few and far between, I’m afraid

Happy hunting

/claus

By: Monique at the Dell

Monique at the Dell — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:54:27 +0000

This was the choice for a lot of people’s Christmas presents, mine included!
It’s a fabulous bottle of whisky.
Well worth the money at that strength, I certainly hope that they can keep them coming.

Jason, great recommendation on the Provenance sherry above from BJ. I’d also add that G&M has a few priced under $300 that are fantastic, a 24 yo from 1982 stands out.

By: Leorin

Leorin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:19:37 +0000

I think we will see at least two or three more annual releases of PE but they will not get cheaper I guess…
The official bottlings so far all were from the 1978 and 1979 vintage. Port Ellen produced untill 1983 and I would be surprised if Diageo would not have enough casks from 1980 to 1983 to continue their annual premium releases…

If they keep on combining casks to baches or if they switch to release the rest of their vanishing stocks as even more expensive single casks is another matter though…

By: B.J. Reed

B.J. Reed — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:11:52 +0000

Jason

There is also a Provenance Sherry bottling of Port Ellen I Love (distilled 83 bottled 06) – not sure if any is left but if you can find a bottle grab it!

By: patrick

patrick — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:05:49 +0000

@Todd

This type of information will never be released, but normally the price reflects the rarity and over the last 2-3 years, the prices have increased of about 30%. Last year, I have read that 18 bottlings of PE were released in 2009.
Regarding Diageo, it is their 9th release. If you estimate that 1 cask yields 250 bottle and app. 6000 bottles are released every year over 9 years, you could assume that Diageo used something between 200 and 250 casks since the launch of the PE annual releases…

By: Henrik

Henrik — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:55:34 +0000

Lucky owner of 2 bottles of last years release..
But I had to stand in line for 4 hours in freezing wind and snow, so I earned my treat!

It´s pretty rediculous what you are prepared to go through, but it was the only way to get hold of these beauties if you live in Sweden…