 Port Ellen 30yo 1982 Old & Rare  
Port Ellen Distillery - Port Ellen, Islay |
Tastes & Smells
Stick your nose near this and you immediately smell cherries and cherry lips, maybe hints of toffee too? Really woody also, and over time it becomes unmistakenly peaty but it takes more time than you'd expect, especially considering how much it shines through eventually. It briefly gives off some cloudy apple juice, and as you appraoch it more, it gets more and more woody and MUSTY ("ahh, so musty, so musty, so musty!), like an old oak cupboard. Tar moves it towards a Japanese smokehouse - fishy - and finally it ends with fruity cigars. Once you taste it, you get sour cherries (this is almost enough to decribe it totally), a slight saltiness and a hint of fresh ginger. It's watery to start with but gradually a richness comes through like a mouth tornado, turning into sweet & sour, but more sour than sweet. Old fermented lemons, whilst the peat on the nose has almost entirely been replaced with a sour, coastal, woody thing - like an old boat. As it dissipates, there are cherries yet again. This time complemented by crispy mackerel snacks and limes, keeping the slight sourness going.
Flavour Search - Results
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Worth shouting about?
I was really looking forward to this. My first Port Ellen and a decent bottling, a crazily expensive treat for my birthday. It didn't really live up to expectations, but was very enjoyable all the same. But at 645 a bottle, you should be getting a lot more than 'enjoyable' as a return. That said, this had one of the nicest musty noses I've ever had the pleasure to smell. It was so good that I started to worry about it all evaporating before I was done. The age, the wood, the peat, all shone through. There was a disappointing lack of peat on the taste, but the woodiness was again very pleasant. There was a slight sourness all the way through (it's got a lovely sour and fruity combo that's pretty unique) - which slightly increased towards the end - but not in a largely unpleasant way, unlike say, the Caperdonich 19yo I tried a week before. That said, it was still a tiny bit too limey towards the end, despite a pleasant profile - distinct in both nose and taste, but not crazily so. It will only be memorable due to the price and rarity, I reckon.
Summary & Ramblings
This didn't immediately transport me anywhere metaphorical, but there was so much mustiness in it that it's got to be reminiscent of an old cupboard. In this case, it would be an old cupboard full of cherries, which gradually sour over time. It's not that it wasn't evocative, it's just hard to think of anything other than Port Ellen when tasting your first (and maybe even only) Port Ellen.
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Tasted on: 23/02/14
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  I had to save a tiny bit of this sample for the future.. |
tldr;
An interesting, musty cherry-laden old cupboard of a dram. Perhaps a little sour towards the end and a disappointly lack of peat in the taste, despite a slow, peaty reward on the nose. It really was a musty delight to smell, but there's no denying the taste didn't live up to that early promise, despite being a nice dram to drink.