PORT ELLEN

The distillery in Islay's main village was founded before the Excise Act 1823 and owned by the redoubtable John Ramsay and his heirs until 1920, when it was sold to Buchanan-Dewars, with whom it joined DCL in 1925. Silent 1929-1966, and extensively refurbished the following year, it closed in 1983. A large new (drum) maltings was built adjacent in 1973 and these continue to supply all the island's distilleries, in terms of a concordat of 1987. It is rare as a single.