End Date : Jan 07 2026 08:00 PM
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Port Ellen 1979 - 1997. 18 Year Old. Bottled by Signatory Vintage for their Silent Stills series. Cask number 274 . One of 190 bottles. 70cl. 56.3%. In presentation box with matching miniature and cask bung.
A single cask Port Ellen 1979 18-year-old Islay single malt whisky bottled without colouring or chill filtration by indie bottlers Signatory Vintage as part of their famous Silent Stills range. Silent Stills was one of Signatory’s most collectible series, as each bottling came in a set with a miniature of the same whisky and a commemorative wooden bung made from the cask it came from.
This 18-year-old Port Ellen 1979 was distilled in the same year as most of the odd-numbered Diageo Special Release Port Ellens, but was bottled several years earlier in 1997 from single cask 274, yielding just 190 bottles at its hefty natural cask strength of 56.3%. A particularly desirable PE for both drinkers and collectors.
One of the great lost distilleries on Islay, Port Ellen was little-known in its lifetime with only a handful of official bottlings produced before the distillery closed in 1983 as part of Diageo forerunner Scottish Malt Distilleries’ swingeing cuts in response to the great whisky lake of the 1970s and 1980s.
Later rediscovered by malt fans thanks to fine independent bottlings from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail, Cadenhead’s and Signatory Vintage, Port Ellen’s reputation mushroomed through the 1990s and 2000s as sensational Rare Malts bottlings were followed by a string of legendary Diageo Special Releases and dozens of superb single cask bottlings from Douglas Laing.
In 2017 the whisky world was stunned when Diageo announced that work was taking place to bring Port Ellen distillery back from the dead - the new Port Ellen distillery finally recommenced production in March 2024.
Signatory Vintage Whisky Company was founded by Andrew Symington in 1988 after a spell as assistant manager at the Prestonfield House Hotel, where he had the opportunity to buy a cask of Glenlivet 1968. A robust and canny businessman, Symington had soon acquired some outstanding parcels of casks from great distilleries, and quickly established a reputation among single malt fans for good value, high quality single casks, the majority of which were released at full strength.
Throughout the 1990s and beyond, Signatory released outstanding whisky from Ardbeg, Glenfarclas, Springbank and many more, with frequently remarkable examples of lost or obscure distilleries. Soon established as one of the leading new wave independent bottlers, Symington was also an early exponent of bottling whiskies without colouring or chill filtration, a policy that has also served Signatory well at their Edradour distillery, which was purchased in 2002.
| BID | DATE | TIME | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £625.00 | 7th January 2026 | 04:31 PM | |
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