Sell Your Port Ellen Annual Release Whisky

Port Ellen distillery is located on the south coast of Islay and was opened in 1824 after being built by Alexander Mackay on the site of a malt mill. In 1836 the lease for the distillery was taken over by John Ramsay.

Ramsay, although very young at 21-years-old when he took over the lease, was a visionary. He became the business partner of the owner of Islay, Walter Frederick Campbell. The two started the bi-weekly ferry between Islay and Glasgow, making Port Ellen the island’s main ferry port, and whisky-making the island’s main business.

In 1869, the sales of Port Ellen were handed to W.P. Lowrie, the blender and broker who had a close working relationship with James Buchanan. At this time Port Ellen had already started to export whisky to the United States.

The distillery stayed in Ramsay’s family until 1920 when it was sold to the Port Ellen Distillery Co., formed by James Buchanan and John Dewar. This company then bought W.P. Lowrie’s company. In 1925 the ownership of Port Ellen passed to DCL (later Diageo) when Port Ellen Distillery Co. and W.P. Lowrie became part of the massive firm. In 1930 the distillery fell silent for over thirty years.

In 1973 new malting drums were built to service Diageo’s three Islay distilleries: Port Ellen, Caol Ila, and Lagavulin. The distillery was hit hard by a sharp decline in demand in the 80s. Smoky single malt drinkers were rare and single malts were rarely being considered for blends. The result was that Port Ellen closed for good in 1983.

Subsequent to its closure, prices for Port Ellen whisky have skyrocketed.

Diageo announced the reopening of Port Ellen way back in 2017, following a £35 million investment in Port Ellen and Brora – another silent distillery owned by the company – and fans of the distillery have been waiting excitedly since then. Port Ellen Distillery finally reopened in March 2024, an event that was much celebrated by the distillery’s cult following.

When Port Ellen closed in 1983 its original stills were lost, something that has been a big point of contention for those longing for Port Ellen’s signature style. The new distillery, however, features two pairs of stills. One pair, ‘The Phoenix Stills’ have been created from the blueprints of the original Port Ellen stills, reviving the distillery’s long-lamented style of whisky distillation. The second pair, ‘The Experimental Stills’ will allow Port Ellen to experiment with new distillation techniques as it moves into this new era.

Diageo is keen to recreate the treasured Port Ellen style and so they are creating stills very similar to the ones that served Port Ellen in its first lifetime, as well as welcoming back former Port Ellen employees. It has been suggested by Diageo that the first release will be a 12-year-old in 2032.

Every year Diageo, the owners of Port Ellen, announce a number of special releases. From 2001 to 2017 these special releases included one bottle of Port Ellen per year. In total there are 17 bottles, and the collection has now become extremely collectible due to Diageo’s announcement that the annual releases are no more. The collection includes a wide range of age statements from 22 to 37 years old.

These bottles are some of the most collectible in the world.