Port Ellen, Gemini, 44 Year Old, 1978, Islay, NV
Port Ellen Gemini Original is an exquisite whisky matured in reserve European Oak butts, longer than any previous release from this cult icon, and left in its original splendour. This untouched whisky from 1978 has smooth, sweet, salty, and smoky characteristics allowing an appreciation of Port Ellen distillery’s time-honoured craft and the characterful Islay smoke. Port Ellen Gemini Remnant, the second of these twin whiskies, embarked on a new maturation journey within the Port Ellen remnant cask. A feature of every distillery, the remnant cask is used to measure excess spirit from a filling run. The Port Ellen remnant cask is likely to have touched some of the distillery’s most historic whiskies and has now been used in the final maturation of Port Ellen Gemini Remnant. Saved by a group of Islay distillers at the close of Port Ellen in 1983 and sheltered for 40 years, the cask was recovered and re-seasoned, setting new life in motion through the innovative finish of the 44-Year-Old Port Ellen. This finishing technique imbues the whisky with a golden garment of sea salt, smoke, dried fruit and oak.
product details
1978
274
3 Refill European Oak Butts. Port Ellen Gemini Original then finished in 1 European Oak Puncheon, Port Ellen Gemini Remnant finished in Brown Sherry Seasoned European Oak Remnant Cask.
Original: Explore light prickle, hints of baked pear and sweet edible seaweed. Dive deeper, for maritime scents born of long years in a sea-side warehouse. Surface, to faint traces of smoke that become ashy, as with a spent bonfire. Late on, seek out a sweet suggestion of soft fudge. Add water to find that sweetness and smokiness more pronounced.
Remnant: Find pleasure at once in rich and fruity top-notes of dark sherry, spirit-soaked prunes and old dry oak spice. Search below for fainter hints of tobacco and charred wood ash, with hints of salt and sawdust. Note how all of these combine slowly, revealing sweet, rich charred ash-smokiness. Add water, to sense sweet, rose-perfumed notes and chocolate-coated toffee caramel.