In exactly one week, Whisky Love Tel-Aviv 2018 will be in full swing. I’ll be there and I hope my Israeli readers will visit this great exhibition too. But what is an exhibition without a commemorative bottle? Of course there’s one but Tomer Goren, the man behind the event decided to bottle a special whisky for Whisky Live and what a special whisky it is: a 37 Years Old Port Ellen.
Yup, this is no mistake. We have a Port Ellen bottling for the Whisky Live show. It was distilled in 1979 and bottled in 2017 after it spent 37 years in a refill Sherry Hogshead that yielded 241 bottles at 44.8%.
For such a pedigree, the price is very very reasonable especially when comparing to other independent bottlers Port Ellens out there. Shall we check it out?
Port Ellen 1979 37 Years Old (For Whisky Live Tel-Aviv 2018) (44.8%, 3000NIS/€700)
Nose: Aged gentle wet peat. Very farmy at first but after a while it’s morphed to earthy peat kind. Sweet red fruits in the background with fresh strawberries and raspberries. Hay and dried grass, moss, hints of apricots and honey. After a while there’s nuttiness and it becomes smoky like a smell of an empty chimney. Continue reading
Nose: Sweet sugar, caramel, toffee, nuts, dried fruit, wet (or very damp) wood, citrus whiffs muffled by artificial sweetness and the damp wood. After letting it rest in the glass for a while it’s slightly better and there are added sherry notes, milk chocolate and a better and stronger dried fruits note. 
Test Batch Series, 5 Months Old, Ex-Sherry, 62.4%
Nose: Sweet red fruit with red apples, a touch of strawberry and even mountain ash (rowan). Then there’s the familiar Campbeltown funk, peat smoke, greenery (but sweet), not much oils and fumes this time (I think the sherry casks tamed some of it), spicy honey, sour berries. With more time there’s less sourness and funk and instead there’s a s sweeter red fruitiness and machines oil. Overall soft and great nose. 
Nose: Soft ashy peat, big wave of smoke and thick sweet dried fruit, strong backbone of wood spices and tobacco, very strong cask influence, cherries and cherries juice, toffee, dates, and plastic, not sure if I like this. With a few drops of water: oh much better, spicier, plums, feels much more matured and coherent but now there’s also some burnt pungent garbage. 
Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Green Stripe 57.3%
Nose: Soft and sweeter nose, especially when compared to the 10 yo and Four Oak. Feels ‘richer’, a bit of luxury feeling, with sweet fruit, both from the first fill bourbon and the other casks: red apples and strawberry Vs. pears and honey. After a few minutes some subtle ashes shows up along with iodine and salted meat. 
Nose: The rye impact is very apparent at first sniff. Spicy with pine, greenery, forest freshness, cloves and mint. After a few minutes less rye influence and we’re getting some more traditional Glenmorangie notes of nuttiness, honey, cinnamon, subtle oak, toffee and citrus. 
Whisky Gospel 