🥃 Whisky Auctioneer

Port Ellen H2H - 5 x Official Releases v 5 x Independent single cask offerings I like Port Ellen just as I like Brora, with both distilleries you can find some superb independent bottlings. With Brora there are also plenty of not so good IB but in my experience nearly all Port Ellen IB, especially those that are single cask, cask strength offerings nearly always are pretty good to excellent. In summary I expected The Bottlers offering to be very hard to beat and so it turned out, with the GM offering just behind but also excellent. It was also no surprise to me that the best of the official bottlings was the first RM bottle, the 20 year. I like the Official Port Ellens but they just lack a bit of sparkle compared to the best IB single casks. I liked the 8th Release better than most people do, it suited my palate and I think it is as good as the 10th Release which up until now was my favourite of the annual releases Tasted OB/IB/OB/IB and so on IB-1982 19 year 61.7% The Bottlers cask 570 -WB 2262- 92/94/95 IB-1980 16 year 64.4% cask 5105-5110 GM WB 81216 – 92/94/94 OB-1978 20 year 60.9% Rare Malts WB 4386 - 91/93/92 OB-1978 29 year 55.3% 8th Release – WB 3994 – 90/93/92 IB-1983 28 year 58.9% cask MoS 11011 Malts of Scotland WB 26723 – 91/92/91 IB-1983 28 year 55.5% cask S1462 Silver Seal WB 30832 – 90/91/91 OB- 1979 30 year 57.7% 9th Release WB 10610 – 89/91/90 OB-1978 27 year 54.2% 6th Release WB 409 – 88/89/91 IB-1979 36 year 56.6% cask 10914 Douglas Laing XOP- WB 73383 – 90/87/88 Extra OB 7th Release 70cl 53.8% WB 638 – 89/88/87 IB-1979 36 year 56.6% cask 10914 Douglas Laing XOP- WB 73383 – 90/87/88 OB-1979 28 year 54.7% 7th Release (20cl bottle) – WB 17018 – 88/87/86

N: orange, wet cardboard, apple, charcoal and pepper T: briny - pickle, coffee and resin/was F: briny, lemon, spices, medium drying and sherry notes - some nuts tasted with Aby and JJ compared with Port Ellen 1979 DL OMC - 60th Anniversary

On the nose it's slowly opened, but the time is compensate a lot of rich aromas. Little bit slightly on the taste, but even so complex. Amazing!

I approach these releases with a little excitement every time, as this is a silent production that became legendary even before I got into whisky and is one of my favorites. Below I will describe my feelings, but I have one more sample, so you can see my notes twice. Let's see how they differ. So.

An ingenious aroma, a masterpiece taste, the finish is weaker, but does not reduce the level of sensations, rather it gives you a break, comprehend and go to the next round - uberwiski.