Award-Winning Whisky Is Hard To Find

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 31st 2009 at 2:02PM

The 29-year-old Port Ellen cask strength whisky took top prize at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, but good luck getting your hands on it. The whisky, which was declared "Best Single Malt," comes from a long-closed Islay distillery. The whisky was released last year from the owner's diminishing stocks. The distillery, on the southern coast of Islay, opened in the 1830s and closed in 1983, though its warehouses still exists.

The 2008 release consists of only 6,660 bottles, with a recommended price of £180 (around $250). The few bottles which are not pre-ordered generally sell out within days of reaching the retailers' shelves and some retailers are already taking orders for the 2009 release due out in September.

The 29 year old Port Ellen is the eighth release of this rare malt. As the Scotsman reports, owners Diageo have always refused to say how many barrels of the rare malt remain so no one knows which batch will be the final batch.

Tags: port ellen, PortEllen, scotch, scotland, whisky