Port Ellen Distillery

Four decades after closing its doors, Port Ellen had become the most lauded of all the ‘ghost’ distilleries. And after six years of radical reimagining, designing and building, the legendary distillery was born again in March 2024. The same forward focus, commitment to quality and beautiful location, but now sits proudly in a brand-new futuristic environment.

Port Ellen has sat on the southern shores of Islay for just shy of 200 years.
With its relaunch announced in 2017, what would the brand story be? Tradition?
History? Craftsmanship? In line with the vision to create a distillery for the future, we looked for inspiration outside of category – in spaces such as lifestyle, furniture, fashion etc. With a worldwide appetite for luxury whiskies established during dormancy, Port Ellen re-awakens with a desire to challenge whisky norms through innovation and experimentation. The brand story would be told through the environment – the visitor journey is led by a unique future-looking, innovative, progressive experience.

Drawing on Port Ellen’s extraordinary heritage as one of the most pioneering distilleries of the 19th Century, the new distillery has been designed from the ground up to push the boundaries of innovation, experimentation and sustainability. This was our point of
difference, the seam of inspiration that ran through everything. It had to feel like a luxurious, contemporary, brand home and unique experience, but also transcending all expectations of what a distillery ‘should’ be. We focussed on 3 key aspects, all of which can be seen in every detail including visionary art and unique serves:

Trailblazing – forward thinking production and creativity
Light – pushing traditional boundaries, creating a place of endeavour
Islay – the peat, the sea, the water, and the people – an integral environmental experience and community.

Port Ellen will employ a range of experimental elements to re-envision the potential of peat and create whisky of the future. Visitors are invited to join this creative community of imagineers and experimentalists charting an ‘atlas of smoke’ — exploring its mysterious effects on the character of Scotch whisky, pushing the
possibilities of these smoky flavours as far as possible. Their endeavours will be added to the archive wall as a living library of reference.

We exchanged traditional whisky design cues for a progressive, high-fashion aesthetic — more contemporary art gallery than whisky distillery. And this is carried throughout with commissions from world-renowned artists to provoke story-telling and conversations of Islay – Port Ellen paving the way forward.