Port Ellen 34 year old

Here’s a classical Port Ellen, where the intense, even monomaniacal delivery of smoke mixes with damp face flannel, purple smoke, green ferns, and rapeseed oil. Lots of minerality, to the point of being almost flintily uncompromising. Water makes it more naked. The palate is excellent, with an explosion of preserved lemon-accented smokiness, touches of Spanish paprika, a sweet syrupy center, before a massive licorice finish. Peatiness for the purist, but whenever was that different? (2,958 bottles).