Port Ellen 1983-2006 - 23 Year Old - Douglas McGibbon - Provenance - Single Cask 3229

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.

Founded in 1947 by Fred Douglas Laing Sr, Douglas McGibbon is a subsidiary of famous independent whisky bottlers Douglas Laing. The McGibbon's brand began as one of Laing’s proprietary blends and by the 1970s had found great success, particularly in the Far East, where McGibbon’s golf-themed ceramic decanters were so popular they won the company a Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1990.

Douglas Laing moved into independent bottling in 1998 and the McGibbon’s Provenance series was launched in 2000 as a budget range, releasing a great many excellent Port Ellen casks in the early Noughties. McGibbon’s Provenance was renamed Douglas Laing’s Provenance in 2015 but the McGibbon’s subsidiary survives today as the vehicle for the company’s Clan Denny range.