News: Port Ellen Blended Malt

Port Ellen Islay Blended Malt
It looks like the marketing geniuses from Diageo are about to re-revive the Port Ellen brand.

With the last bottle-worthy casks of the legendary single malt being sold, the team around Master Blender Jim Beveridge and head of Whisky Outreach (no idea what that means) Nick Morgan is hard at work to create a new blended malt with the same name.

The term Islay malt reveals that the new whisky probably has only two components, Caol Ila and Lagavulin. Both distilleries are owned by Diageo, who still owns Port Ellen Maltings.

Identity Card

  • Port Ellen Small Batch Release
  • Islay Blended Malt
  • 46% ABV
Port Ellen Distillery
The old distillery was closed in 1983 and transformed into a malting facility.
But a blend of Lagavulin and Caol Ila sounds very promising! Picture:  The Whisky Exchange


We can only cross our fingers that Jim Beveridge and co. will try to approach Port Ellen's classic flavour profile as close as possible with some of the older Lagavulin and Caol Ila stock. Who knows, they will need to add a teaspoon of overaged Port Ellen single malt to every batch to use its brand name?


The slightly higher ABV, natural color and the fact that the whisky will be bottled unchillfiltered create high expectations. Let's hope the price won't be a joke...

Source & image: TTB Colas Online Public Registry

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