n:  Malted cherry and hint of wintergreen

p:  Light fireplace ash.  Hint of red hots. 

Nose: A haze of sherry and peat, matchsticks and fruit.

Palate:  Wow, totally bizarre stuff.  There is definitely that peanutty element that Adam mentions.  I get a rather strong dose of sulphur on this by midpalate but it's so well integrated with the peat that it doesn't overwhelm.

The finish is surprisingly light with gentle sherry tones. 

Water brings much more fruit to the nose but deadens some of the complexity of the palate.

Really well done and compeltely out of character for a Port Ellen.  I'd never have come close to identifying it in a blind tasting.

Notes for freshly opened bottle:

Starts with; motor oil, winey notes, wood chips and a big citrus kick. There is some sulphur but it surprisingly works for this. There is a mineral/ flint quality here as well much like striking two rocks against one another. Tons of tangy fruit here: young berry, sour cherry, apple skin, grapefruit and pomegranate. I also smell red vines. Yummmmm. There is more peat than I am used to from Port Ellen but its pronounced and clean. A lot of BBQ stuff here; smoke, briquettes, and charred meats. The long finish is mentholated with sweet caramel candy. Water shows more hard fruit candy. Unusual and straying from distillery character but freaking awesome.

Retaste after bottled was opened:

After a few months this baby really open up and changes.  Its pretty darn sweet.  Smells of toasted coconut shavings, caramel, very ripe yellow peaches, and fruit cocktail syrup.  The diesel aspect remains but it toned down and mixed with damp earth and mossy vegetation.  Peat lurks in the background.  All this follows suit on the palate with good viscosity and balance. The winey, minerlaic and sulphuric notes that I enjoyed remain.  This is better than when it was first opened!

I am not usually a big fan of Port Ellen.  Way more hype than I think it deserves.  This, however, is very un-Port Ellen.  This hits more like an old Talisker (thanks Mole).  Loads of sulphur - like over-burned match-sticks.  I don't think I have ever gotten this from a Port Ellen before. It is really good and likely hails from a sherry cask sulphur candle rather than anything else.

This had so much less of the cinnamon red-hot thing that usually puts me off on Port Ellen (most are too one-note wonders).  This is complex and oily and warm peat campfire goodness.  A huge malt with a terrifically unusual profile.  I like it for being different and fabulously tasty.

N: Funky, sour, some tar and smoke. Opens up with time to show more sherry and BBQ.

F: Wow - a ton of brine, more than I've ever gotten on any Port Ellen. Salted fish, plenty of heat, kind of a cayenne heat. Unfortunately I get a very distinct kind of acrid funk on the palate that I have detected elsewhere, my "burned hair/barbicide" quality.

F: Hot, tarry, woody, with some more of that weird funk.

I'm not in love with this and there's a very specific cause. This has an amount of a very specific note I refer to as "burned hair/barbicide". It's slightly acrid and chemical. It's not always an off-putting note - I got it in trace amounts on the Highland Park for Park Ave but it was an odd if workable combo. However, it also reminds me a lot of an amazingly bad Glen Elgin (which was packed with flaws) and more recently a flawed Brechin. I don't know that it's sulfur (as I've loved many malts referred to by others as sulfured and never found this quality on those), but I'd love to know what exactly it is so I can put a name to it. 

That quality, along with the heat (61%!) and a slight sourness made this a really questionable one for me. Water only intensified the bad qualities while tamping down the good stuff.  

This one really confused me in a really good way. The flavor profile was made up of much that I'm not typically a huge fan of, but somehow the way it was all put together, the many dimensions of it, really tickled my tongue (yum). 

The nose was sour, moldy, sulpheric and of old vegetables...and it was great!

A sweet grassy taste mixed with more of that sour on the palate that really worked for me. It also got a little spicy. So much going on and yet so balanced. 

Lasts for a nice long time - the sweetness lingering the most.

n: Burnt cherry jam on a dark buttered toast. Petroleum, sandalwood, orange furniture wax, smoke, and rubber hose.

t: Dense red fruit and dark chocolate on pumpernickle pretzel. Extremely savoury with maritime saltiness and wood char. Cinnamon red hots, pickle juice and more smoke in mid-palatte. Very tarry and notes of black rubber that I find unusual. It's like seaweed doused with soy sauce and spoonfull of burnt strawberry jam on top.

* This is the stuff I love because it's weird, memorable and f-in' tasty to earn extra bonus points for me.

Can we curse on here? Cause this bottle deserves some curse words... [A solid]

N: Briney peat with hints of sulfur.

P: Continues on the palate, with the delicate peat building as it leads into the...

F: ...rather funky finish, good sulfur. 

Hard to know if I'd like this one better without the sulfur, definitely unique but sometimes more is less.