Port Ellen 1979 22 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700ml (1st Release 2001)

After 40 years of closure and a turbulent past, Port Ellen distillery reopened for production in 2024 to welcome whisky lovers making the pilgrimage to the Isle of Islay. Through immersive tours and tastings, visitors can experience the finest moments of Port Ellen’s past and explore the future possibilities of what the renewed distillery sets out to create. Glimpse the experimentation and innovation spearheaded by Port Ellen’s craftspeople and unearth new insights surrounding the mysteries of Scotch.

Port Ellen was founded in 1825, on the south side of Islay, by A.K. Mackay & Co. The Ramsay family operated the distillery from 1833 to 1920, when they sold Port Ellen to Buchana-Dewars, who formed a new company to oversee Port Ellen's affairs.

Port Ellen was reputedly the first distillery to use the spirit safe design. Its innovations continued under John Ramsay, who took over in 1836 and made it the first to trade with North America in 1848. Ramsay also secured the right to export in larger casks and store them in bonded warehouses, a practice still in use today. His influence extended to helping develop continuous stills, establishing the Islay to Glasgow steamboat service, importing Sherry and Madeira, and serving as Liberal MP for Stirling and chairman of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.

After Ramsay’s death (1892), the distillery remained in his family until the 1920s when Distillers Company Limited (DCL) acquired it in 1925. DCL closed its doors to the public in 1929, but the distillery's maltings and bonded warehouses continued to operate until its reopening with additional stills in 1966-67. A large drum maltings built in 1973 still supplies malt to all Islay distilleries to this day. Port Ellen closed again in 1983, but whiskies produced between 1966 and its final closure have gained a reputation as some of the finest to have been made on Islay in that time. Following successful Rare Malt bottlings, in 1998 and 2000, Diageo released an official bottling of Port Ellen every year from 2001 to 2017, making Port Ellen annual releases the stuff of legend.