Port Ellen Tasting - October 4th - 7 PM

[Ganga]

Whiskies: Any PE that you can scavenge.

When: Saturday October 4, 7 PM London Time (or earlier if need be)

Who: EVERYONE

If you are new here or have question, please feel free to post them. These tastings are for people to learn and explore whisky.

[Ganga]

Let me kick this off a little early

Signatory 1979, 22 yo, Butt 5537, 273/768
Courtesy of WAVE

Glass: Brandy Glass
Nose: lemony oil, a bin of wheat, minty chocolate
Palate: oily (creosote), overdone brownies, some vegetal notes
Finish: rather short, with an oily-smokey flavor

[Deactivated Member]

It's five before eight in the morning here and I'm thinking of tea, not whisky.

Good luck but I now confirm that I had my rare day off yesterday and will not be available tonight.


In fact, due to a possible late one today and another very early one tomorrow, I may not even get home tonight

But there again, if I do stay in the pub tonight I will not be driving home, so if I get chance, I may even sample my PE 2nd online from the pub.

[Sherried Malt]

I have all of two PEs but will come in after the usual weekend errands. In the meantime, have a great time!

[Leorin]

I'll try to work myself through the following line-up tonight:


McGibbons Provenance 1982 19yo (courtesy Collector 57)
Berry Brothers 1982 2007 #2469 46% (courtesy Ras)
Douglas Laing Provenance Aut 82 - Sum 04 21yo 46%
Bladnoch bottling 25yo Butt 2036 58.1% (courtesy Willie)
Signatory Scottish Wildlife 10 y.o. 43% (courtesy Willie & SoI)
PE AR2
PE AR3

This looks as if it's going to be a wonderful eavening

Looking forward to see you all later...
Kevin

[Wave]

It's just a tad too early for me yet (10am here) but on tap for tonight is...

22yo 1979 Signatory Vintage cask #5537 43%
18yo 1983 Scott's Selection 55.5%
22yo 1983 OMC cask #2119 50%
23yo 1979 Signatory Vintage cask #6774 56.3%
25yo Bladnoch Bottling cask #2036 58.1%
25yo 1982 Signatory Vintage cask #2844 58%

Mmmmm, looks yummy!

Cheers!

[Willie JJ]

Signatory Scottish Wildlife 10 y.o. 43%

Bladnoch bottling 25yo Butt 2036 58.1% (I think this was Willie but I haven't written it down )

I thnk that's all but I need a good root through the samples before we start.

Yes the Bladnoch is from me and you should also have the Signatory Scottish Wildlife 10 y.o., which I enclosed courtesy of Gordon.

[TheTross]

I've got the following to work through/choose from:

• 3rd Release, 57.3%
• 7th Release, 53.8% (ryguy)
• 22yo 1983/2005, 50% OMC
• 25yo 1979 OMC, 50% (ryguy)
• Bladnoch cask 2036, 58.1% (WillieJJ)
• Bladnoch cask 2037, 56.2% (Jimmy321)
• 25yo 1982/2008 A. D. Rattray, Cask 2466, 60.4%
• 10yo Signatory Scottish Wildlife, 43% (WillieJJ/SOI)
• 1982/2007 Berry's, cask 2469, 46% (Ras Mazunga)
• 19yo 1982/2001 McGibbons Provenance, 43% (Collector57)
• 1982/2007 DDC, Cask 1144, RMW 10th Anniversary bottling, 51.5%

Thanks very much to all that sent me samples! One or two of them date back quite a while but have come in handy for the tasting...

In other news, I'm now not going to Wales. The event's probably going to be cancelled due to part of the route having been flooded thanks to torrential rain, so we're not risking a four-hour round trip to see a whole lot of nothing. That means there's a chance I'll be available for the entire tasting! However, there's now also a chance I'll be out all night with a couple of mates, but I'm still waiting to hear about that. And because I've no idea what's going on anymore I'm not going to start the tasting early as I had hoped to do. Why is nothing simple?!

[Ganga]

It's 9 AM here (9:30 Forum Time). Getting ready to take to my boys to the pitch, ok not really; it's just a big open field with lots of little fields set up. Games end 11 AM then I'll be back. Only a few on tap but I have lots of glassware.

[Willie JJ]

Scavenging has gone well, thanks to all the kindly folks that contributed. My line up is:

PE AR2
PE AR3 (courtesy Jimmy321)
McGibbons Provenance 19yo Spring 1982 - Spring 2001 43% (courtesy C57)
McGibbons Provenance 21yo Autumn 1982 - Summer 2004 46% (courtesy Leorin)
Berry Brothers 1982 - 2007 Cask #2469 46% (courtesy Ras Mazunga)
Signatory Vintage 22yo 1979 - 2002 43% abv, Refill Sherry, Cask 5537 (courtesy Ryguy)
Bladnoch bottling 25yo Butt #2036 58.1%
Signatory Scottish Wildlife 10 y.o. 43% (courtesy SpiritofIslay)
Plowed Ellen 24yo 1982 - 2004 Cask #748, 61.1% (courtesy SpiritofIslay)
A. D. Rattray 25yo 1982 - 2008 Cask #2466 60.4% (courtesy The Tross)
Dormant Distillery Company 1982 - 2007 Cask #1144 51.5% (courtesy The Tross)
Old Bothwell 26yo 1979 - 2006 Cask #7094 53% (courtesy Daveski)

Looking forward to this, but it might be around 8pm before I get on.

Cheers

[Leorin]

PE 1982-2001 Mc Gibbons 19y.o. (coutesy of Collector 57)

Nose: dark orange chocolate, caramelized nuts, phenols, peat
Taste: base (alkali), iodine, smoked tea (pu erh), rather soft
Finish: leather, peat, medium lenght
conclusion: An interesting PE that finallly reveals his origin clearly at the finish. Would have been even better with a little more power I guess.

[Leorin]

PE Signatory Scottish Wildlife 10 y.o.
N:Iodine, peat, celp, metallic, freshly broken boughs
T:fruit acid, metallic, youthful power, peatsmoke, bittern
F:acidic, assam tea, peat
C: Dryer than I suspected. For me it plays in the same league as the 10 y.o. Laphroaig or the 12 y.o. Caol Ila. I read that they decided to close PE because they thought that it was inferior to CI for it's significantly slower maturation. This expression deosn't confirm that reason.

[Leorin]

PE Berry's Own Selection 1982-2007 Cask 2469

N: resolvent, peat, cheese, maritime (seabreeze), complex, intoxicating
T: viscous, peat, ashes,malty, very ballanced
F: glowing, peatsmoke
C: Almost perfect drinking strenght PE. I love this expression.

[TheTross]

Port Ellen 1982/2007 (46%, Berry's Own Selection, Cask #2469)

Nose: Mild peat and pepper. Quite medicinal - iodine and antiseptic cream. Lemon and hints of plums and vanilla. Some soot. Gently smoked peppered fish (kippers?). Becomes quite creamy when left to breathe a little, and I don't know how or why but I can detect hints of those strawberry-flavoured Campino sweets here!

Palate: A bit more peaty than on the nose, with quite a bit of smoke. Gently peppery. Citrussy, mainly lemon. Mildly medicinal here too, largely on iodine.

Finish: Coal smoke and very soft peat. Also a touch peppery and creamy. Becomes lemony and after a short while, with the smoke lingering. Smoked lemons???


I find this to be very elegant, with the usual peat and pepper toned down a little to allow the fruitier side to come through. Lovely whisky! Thanks very much for the sample Ras!

[Dram fine idea]

Evening all, sorry I'm late (as usual). Many thanks to all who have sent me samples - I will recognise each kind sender individually throughout the evening. Enough to say I felt like a kid at Christmas/Birthday time opening all the lovely packages today. Here's to a great evening, one and all.

[Leorin]

PE Mc Gibbon's Provenance Aut 82-Sum04 46%

N: sherry, leomon, hints of burnt matches
T:fruity, sherry sweetness, bittersweet, tobacco, rather light peat
F: bittersweet, leathery peat, medium lenght
C:Less peaty with sherry influence and a "touch of lemon". A Port Ellen for the summer?

[Ganga]

Evening, Nick, Stu, DFI, Leorin.

Back from the pitch this fine (ok it's actually pretty ugly) morn.

[Leorin]

Cheers everybody.
I'm happy to see there are more and more who are joining in.
Thanks to everybody who supplied a sample to me!
Slainte
Kevin

PS: Steve, I hope my sample arrived in time. I didn't manage to bring it to the post office before tuesday because I had too much work to do.

[Spirit of Islay]

Evening all !
Thought i might as well drop in , have dug out some PE's for later (though i have to say i'm not the biggest PE fan....i'm in the blending fodder club but less of that...) .
Starting off with a beer though , a rather nice Saligo all from the two Pauls at Islay Ales .

[Ganga]

Evening Gordon, ok morning for me.

[Dram fine idea]

PE 10 Yo Signatory Scottish Wildlife 43% (Thank you to Spirit of Islay)

Nosing glass (from Highland Park distillery). I raise my glass to friends in Kirkwall and all on the forum obviously.

Nose Peat, woodyness, touch of fruit,
Taste Peat, lemon, touch of dry wood, slightly hot and metallic, lively and young (like a boisterous 10 yo)
Finish Fades gently and lingers for a while (with the taste filtering through)
Comment Very interesting to try a 10yo whisky from a distillery which closed in 1983 - this must be rare.

[mikeymad]

For a closed distillery (for a long time) there shure is a lot of bottles avalible out there.....

I have a small collection of 4 to try... so I will take my time starting later.

OMC 79/25 50%
7th release 53.8%
Sig 79/22 43% 5537
Prov 82/22 46%

Cheers,

[Dram fine idea]

Hi Kevin

Sample arrived this morning - perfect timing

Cheers
Steve

[Ganga]

Mikey's probably lurking.

Just kicking back with a warm up dram and reading some of the goings on.

[Dram fine idea]

Hi Nick

I'm here too. Thanks for the McGibbons Provenance - I'll post notes on it shortly.

Cheers
Steve

[Leorin]

PE Bladnoch Forum 25 y.o. 58,1%vo.

N:top soil, natural vanilla, peatsmoke, butter
T:sweet, peat, wine gums
F:ashes, peat
B:Another outstanding PE!

[Spirit of Islay]

You're lucky in the fact that i was originally putting the young PE into a tasting i done at Ardbeg in 2005 but pulled it when i opened it to write tasting notes as it stunk to high heaven !
I still find a slightly off note in it and a few other PE's , if it's not an off note it's something i don't like in PE's .

Signatory Scottish Wildlife Port Ellen 10yo 43%

N: Very weak with that damn off note, slight peat and very subdued Iodine .
P: I can see why you compare this with the CI 12yo , again everything seems subdued compared to it's Islay Brothers . Peat , iodine but none of the wonderful germolene of the CI .
F:Not very long and slight sweet peat .
C:Still stand by my original comment on tasting this , i can see why it was shut down in favour of Laga and CI.....

[TheTross]

My last tasting today. Will be back tomorrow to do the rest...

Port Ellen 19yo 1982/2001 (43%, McGibbons Provenance)

Nose: Some interesting off-notes initially that (thankfully) soon develop into dark, lightly spiced (cinnamon?) orange chocolate. Almost no peat or smoke at first, but this comes through a little with time. Lemon juice. A touch peppery. Some caramel notes and perhaps a little farmy. Maybe even a touch yeasty.

Palate: Gentle and lightly phenolic. Powdered dark chocolate and citrus fruit. Hints of manure. Becomes quite drying. Traces of iodine.

Finish: Surprisingly fruity (citrus), with the trademark smoke and pepper appearing shortly after. Smoked fish makes a brief appearance, with caramel, soft peat and rather bizarrely, milk replacing it. Slightly medicinal and smoky (burnt tyre smoke) towards the end.


I found this to be quite a strange PE, but the longer it spent in the glass the better it became. Thanks for the sample Nick!

[TreacleSponge]

Evening all. Wow, page 2 already, I didn't think it was that late. Best get a bottle open

[mikeymad]

Hi Steve!

Mikey - damn! I could have sent some via Ryan, doh!

No worries Nick......

I will enjoy my Ryan samples... and my one lonely bottle...

Cheers.

[mikeymad]

Nice notes Stuart.... Thanks for coming out and playing for a while....

Look forward to your future notes.

Cheers,

[Ganga]

Hey TS, now it was just some early birds getting started. I've got a few to try so not pushing too hard here.

[Ganga]

Glasses are cleaned, palate is warmed up...at least a little bit. I will start with the OMC 1979, 25 yo, 50%. Sample is courtesy of Ryan.

[Dram fine idea]

PE 19yo 43% McGibbons Provenance Spring 1982 to Spring 2001 Non Coloured, Non Chill Filtered (Thanks to Nick/C57)

Nosing glass (from Oban distillery)

Nose Iodine, lovely and gentle

Taste Soft arrival, then lashings of iodine and then slightly peppery.

Finish Seems short and final, then the iodine rumbles on for quite a while

Comment A good straightforward dram.

[Ganga]

PE: OMC, 1979, 25 yo, 50%
Glass: Ardbeg Noser
Nose: It's oily, malty with some citrus (oranges mixed with lemons?) notes in there.
Palate: An oily peat dominate here. Some lemons and malt in the background.
Finish: Diminishes rapidly and then lingers. Oily is what seems to be the dominant force throughout.