Cuvée presentation
A Port Ellen small batch (#152 and #153), distilled in 1975 and bottled in 1998 by Signatory Vintage for La Maison du Whisky. Andrew Symington, founder of Signatory Vintage, started his whisky business by selecting casks for the Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh. This marked the beginning of Andrew Symington's whisky adventure, which led him to subsequently launch Signatory Vintage in 1988. Symington invested in a small bottling line, which he housed in his Edinburgh cellars. He started by bottling at natural strength, with no chill filtration or colouring, methods that were still uncommon in the late 1980s. The iconic ‘Dumpy bottle’ series, for example, displayed details that bottlers had traditionally not divulged, such as the cask number, the type of cask, the number of bottles, etc. The bottle numbers were also inscribed by hand. Signatory Vintage has forged a reputation for selling not only the finest whiskies from the most legendary distilleries in the world, such as Springbank, Ardbeg, Laphroaig and Bowmore, but also by bottling whiskies from extremely rare distilleries such as Ben Wyvis, Glen Flagler and Killyloch. Not to mention the many versions distilled in Lomond stills at Miltonduff (Mosstowie), Glen Keith (Craigduff, Glenisla) or Glenburgie (Glencraig). Finally, in 2002, Andrew Symington also acquired the Edradour distillery in Pitlochry in the Highlands. The distillery is now home to Signatory Vintage, whose cellars are directly opposite the distillery. Limited edition of 790 bottles.
The distillery Port Ellen
Founded in 1825 by A. K. Mackay & Co. on the southern coast of the Isle of Islay, Port Ellen came under the control of John Ramsay in 1836, a period during which the site notably contributed to the development of whisky exports to North America. The distillery became part of the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1925 and subsequently underwent a prolonged period of closure before returning to production in the late 1960s. Primarily operated to supply malt whisky for blends, Port Ellen ceased distillation in May 1983 as part of a broader rationalisation of Scotch whisky production capacity. Stocks distilled before the closure continued to mature and were subsequently bottled, notably through Diageo’s Special Releases, which included seventeen annual Port Ellen editions between 2001 and 2017. After more than forty years without production, Diageo officially restarted distillation at Port Ellen in March 2024. The rebuilt facility incorporates two pairs of stills: the “Phoenix Stills”, designed to replicate the stills used before the 1983 closure, and the “Experimental Stills”, combined with a spirit safe designed to allow more precise separation of the different fractions of the spirit run. Bottlings drawn from historical stocks therefore originate exclusively from spirit distilled up to 1983, while production resumed in 2024 represents a distinct new period in the chronology of Port Ellen.
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