Specialist spirits purveyor Duncan Taylor has released the newest malt from its "Rarest Collection" with a recommended retail price of £5,700.
Dating from March 1983, the Port Ellen 40-year-old is a limited release of 209 bottles from cask number 667, one of the last batches of Port Ellen production and mere weeks before the Islay distillery closed its doors for the last time in May of that year.
Founded by Alexander Kerr Mackay in 1825 on the island's southern coast, Port Ellen was named after the nearby town and came to have great success exporting to the United States prior to Prohibition in 1920. The distillery initially fell silent for 37 years from 1930 but was then resurrected in 1967 due to increased demand for peated whisky. However, Distillers Company, the owner of Port Ellen since 1925, closed its doors again in 1983.
The first-fill sherry cask was initially stored on Islay until it was laid down to finish maturing in the vaults at Duncan Taylor’s headquarters in Aberdeenshire in 2010. Each hand-finished decanter is sequentially numbered with a signed certificate of authenticity.
Established as a whisky merchant in 1938 in Glasgow, Duncan Taylor was subsequently bought by US drinks entrepreneur Abe Rosenberg in 1961. It has evolved from a cask broker and stockholder into a company with its own brands selling into 60 markets around the world, with its own bottling, blending and storage facilities in Huntley, Scotland.
READ MORE: "Extraordinary" 74-year-old malt goes on sale
“When I bought the company from Abe Rosenberg’s family back in 2001, the inventory was incredible, with some amazing rare and old whiskies," chairman, Euan Shand said. “The casks of Port Ellen were ones that really stood out for me as something special and we’ve patiently waited for them to mature, bringing that rich, dark colour to the liquid.
"The cask has created an evocative whisky that embraces the peat from the kilns and the brine of the sea, alongside a succulent rich, fruity base. It’s one of the finest whiskies we’ve launched this year and that’s saying something.”
Duncan Taylor last released a Port Ellen back in 2013. Port Ellen 1983 will launch at this weekend's Whisky ‘Old & Rare’ Show in London.
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