Soba45
Port Ellen 1980 35 Year Rare Old (Gordon & MacPhail)
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
October 5, 2019 (edited October 6, 2019)
I used to frequent a whiskey bar in another city when I was down there for work. I asked if they had any Port Ellen or Brora and he said he stopped buying it as the stuff that was vaguely affordable i.e. sub $700USD a bottle wasn't that great, didn't last and he pulled the last bottle off the shelf after 2 weeks open as he just in good conscience couldn't sell it. A couple of years later I got my hands on a sample of a $1000usd+ bottle for a reasonable $50USD and yeah nice dram but to be honest I preferred what Johnnie Walker did in their Blue Label blend. However it's nice sitting in the sun drinking a piece of history and it is a lovely dram just not mindblowing. Sweet vanilla, fennel, cooked cabbage and petrol, very light and well balanced and nicer than the taste descriptors make it sound. You are definitely drinking it and judging it on what it's a memory of rather than for the taste experience. RIP Port Ellen I await your rebirth. Hmm I see I'm up to the number of the beast in tastes.. not sure if that's an unlucky thing or not so I better keep tasting!
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@PBMichiganWolverine Yeah.. I'm quite happy just trying the new stuff going forward as I'm sure it'll be awesome if they recreate it right!
@Soba45 @Slainte-Mhath what’s even worse: I think all these bottles will quickly sky rocket even more once the distillery is revived and produces its first new ones
@Slainte-Mhath Ha you read my mind! Even after I rated them I thought would I really rated them as high if they had been bog standard low age drams. I wouldn't have gone a point less (as below 3.5 rating isn't that great at all in my rating system) but it may have gone .25 less. Hard to completely isolate yourself against biases..positive or negative...
@Soba45 I guess in a blind tasting, most people would give 1 star less on average when tasting a Port Ellen, Brora or Karuizawa. It is hard to spend $50 on a small sample and score it only 3 stars!
@Slainte-Mhath Yup I agree. I find when I try this stuff you get the feeling that you almost have to live up to a certain standard as a taster to truely appreciate the stuff and if it doesn't blow you away it's you not it so you hunt for any measure to justify the rating you think it should get. It's even worse when you are in the company of a large group of people. I'm a lot more comfortable pushing that thought to one side these days, and just measuring it against what I like as any regular dram. Anything old and rare has a whole lot of hype behind it. I read a story about wine forger of Thomas Jefferson bottles and how Robert Parker and others were blown away and gave them 100 points etc. They turned out to be forgeries...Haha.
@Soba45 Most Port Ellen's have reasonable quality, but I am in no way willing to pay the hugely inflated prices. Problem with these bottle is, if you pay the price, you expect it to be good, it MUST be good, so your judgement tends to be clouded.