Port Ellen distillery

Port Ellen Distillery

The Port Ellen distillery was a whiskey distillery in Port Ellen on the Scottish island of Islay. Parts of the building are arranged in the British lists of monuments in the category B.

History

The distillery was founded in 1825 by Alexander Kerr Mackay and reached 1836 in the possession of John Ramsay. 1920 sold Iain Ramsay of Kildalton, a nephew of John Ramsay, the distillery to James Buchanan & Co. and John Dewar & Sons Ltd.. , Which merged in 1925 with Distillers Company Limited ( DCL). In 1929 the distillery was closed for the first time. After the modernization and the doubling of stills from two to four, the distillery was then reopened in 1966. 1973, a very spacious malthouse was built which will still supplied Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Lagavulin and partially Bunnahabhain, Kilchoman and Laphroaig. The peat used comes from the nahegelegenem Castle Hill Moor.

In May 1983, the distillery Port Ellen was closed again. In 1987 it was sold to the United Distillers (UD). Parts of the plant have now been dismantled. The license for whiskey production, which stood until 1992 when Low, Robertson & Co, does not exist anymore since then. A reopening is excluded. The distillery was demolished in large parts; the warehouses were still used for many years by Lagavulin.

Production

Until the closure was produced with the water from the Leorin hole. ( Do mash ) with a mash tun above 5.5 tons and eight vats (wash -backs) of a total of 240,000 liters and two wash stills each 28,000 liters and two spirit stills of 25,000 liters a discharge of 0.8 million liters was achieved. The distillery bottlings are still available on the market, but are subject to increasing price increase. The whiskeys have a slightly peaty Islay typical scent, a very specific flavor of smoke and an oily finish.