Gordon & MacPhail (distilled at Port Ellen), 1982

Port Ellen is going to just keep getting rarer and more expensive, and the quality is going to get more variable. This one shows the traditional Port Ellen characteristics (seaweed, tar, charcoal, damp earth, vanilla, salt, white pepper), but it just seems to flatten out mid-palate, leading to a fairly lifeless, slightly astringent finish. I feel like some of the guts were ripped out of this whisky. Bottling at a higher strength (and not chill-filtered) would have helped immensely.