Port Ellen (whiskey distillery)
| Port Ellen | |
|---|---|
 Port Ellen Distillery |
|
| country | Scotland |
| region | Islay |
| Geographical location | 55 ° 38 '0.2 " N , 6 ° 11' 48.8" W |
| Type | Paint |
| status | † shut down May 1983; License returned in 1992 |
| owner | Distillers Company Limited (DCL) |
| Founded | 1825 |
| founder | Alexander Kerr Mackay |
| Water source | Leorin Lochs |
| Washstill (s) | 2 × 28,000 l |
| Spiritstill (s) | 2 × 25,000 l |
The Port Ellen distillery was a whiskey - distillery in Port Ellen on the Scottish island of Islay . Parts of the buildings are classified in category B on the British list of monuments . Today Port Ellen is primarily important as a malt house and thus as a supplier to the other distilleries on Islay.
history
The distillery was founded in 1825 by Alexander Kerr Mackay and came into the possession of John Ramsay in 1836. Under his leadership, she began exporting whiskey to the United States and was able to expand. Due to tax increases before and after the First World War and American prohibition , the situation for distillery owners became significantly worse. In 1920 Iain Ramsay of Kildalton, the son of John Ramsay , sold the distillery to James Buchanan & Co. and John Dewars & Sons Ltd. , which merged with Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1925 . From 1929 the distillery was closed like many others. Their malting floors remained in operation and, among other things, supplied the neighboring Lagavulin distillery. The warehouses were also used for Lagavulin and Malt-Mill barrels. Port Ellen remained closed until 1966. Due to increased demand, especially from the blending companies, the distillery was re-equipped in 1966/1967. After the modernization and the partial new construction, which included a doubling of the stills from two to four, the distillery was then reopened on April 1, 1967. In 1973 an extremely spacious malt house was added, which still supplies Ardbeg , Caol Ila , Lagavulin and in part Bunnahabhain , Kilchoman and Laphroaig today . The peat used comes from nearby Castlehill Moor .
In May 1983 the Port Ellen distillery was closed again. Reasons were the overproduction crisis in the Scottish whiskey industry and the fact that the other SMD Islay distilleries Lagavulin and Caol Ila had a better reputation with the blenders. Caol Ila was also larger and more efficient since it was completely rebuilt between 1972 and 1974. In 1987 DCL was taken over by United Distillers (UD). Parts of the Port Ellen facility were dismantled in the following years. The license to produce whiskey, which was held by Low, Robertson & Co until 1992 , no longer exists. A reopening seemed impossible. The distillery was largely demolished in 2003; the warehouses were used by Lagavulin for many years.
In October 2017, owner Diageo announced that it would reopen the Port Ellen and Brora distilleries and start distilling whiskey again from 2020. Both distilleries are said to produce 800,000 liters of alcohol per year. While the two stills are still available at Brora and can perhaps be put back into operation after appropriate processing, the stills at Port Ellen will have to be rebuilt according to old plans. Although there are a few other listed buildings in addition to the warehouses, most of the production buildings will have to be rebuilt. The number of stills to be used in the new distillery should be 2 instead of 4. Even then it would be clear that the possible production could also be over 800,000 liters. The first repairs on the distillery site were already carried out in the second half of 2017. Some of the roofs, especially those of the former Mälzboden (currently the workshop for the Port Ellen Maltings), were replaced by new ones. A lot has also changed in terms of personnel. Since May 2018, Georgie Crawford, the last manager of Lagavulin, has been responsible for the new construction of the distillery.
production
Until the shutdown, the water from the Leorin Loch was used for production. With a mash tun ( mash tun ) of over 5.5 tons and eight fermentation vats ( wash backs ) of a total of 240,000 liters as well as two wash stills of 28,000 liters each and two spirit stills of 25,000 liters each, an output of well over 2.5 million Liters reached. Bottlings from the distillery can still be found on the market, but are subject to increasing price increases. As is typical for Islay, the whiskeys have a slightly peaty scent, a very smoke-determined taste and an oily finish.
literature
- Ralf Bernhardt, Hans Georg Würsching: The Port Ellen Single Malt Whiskey Collector's Guide . Cluaran Verlag, Einhausen 2003, ISBN 3-9809344-1-1 .
- Holger Dreyer: The Legend of Port Ellen Distillery. Unibuch Verlag, Springe 2016, ISBN 978-3-934900-63-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ^ Misako Udo, The Scottish Whiskey Distilleries , Black & White Publishing 2006, ISBN 1-84502-130-4