The announcements in past years that the well-loved, but lost, Port Ellen distillery will be reopening was met with huge excitement by whisky lovers and collectors so it is no surprise that we are once again hyped with the news about the Port Ellen Gemini bottles!
There has been a constellation of Port Ellen special bottlings and releases through the last two decades, since the distillery’s closure in 1983. However, at 44 years this duo is Port Ellen’s oldest release up to date. Both bottled at 52.5% ABV and with 288 bottles yield from each cask the twins’ labels read respectively:
- Port Ellen Gemini Remnant Cask 52.5% ABV
With Guiding Hand And Amber Light, Port Ellen Is Reborn
A Single Cask Beholds The Fruit Of History In Its Grain, For Time To Savour
- Port Ellen Gemini Original Cask 52.5% ABV
The Light Of Islay Shines Brightly Still, As Port Ellen Awakens.
A Legacy Spirit, Untouched, Reveals What Time Has Distilled.
The bottles will surely disappear with astronomical speed but if you are amongst the lucky ones and manage to get your hands on a dram from one or both of the rare twins please do share if they have left you starry eyed!
Gemini, as all mutable zodiac signs, “marks the completion of a cycle” and we find this fitting in view of Port Ellen restarting production in 2023 and hence ending the era of it being a “ghost distillery”.