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Scotland’s Port Ellen Distillery is using an algorithm called SmokeDNAi to study how whisky changes in the cask—not to make it age faster. The system analyzes chemical information from two 44-year-old whiskies and turns patterns in their maturation into visual representations of smoke and flavor. It is best understood as a research and interpretation tool, not an automated whisky maker or a substitute for time, casks, and human judgment.
The short answer: AI is studying the whisky, not aging it
Port Ellen, a Diageo-owned distillery on Scotland’s Islay, used SmokeDNAi to examine the maturation of its Port Ellen Gemini whiskies. The system is described as analyzing chemical characteristics and helping visualize how flavor and smoke profiles developed. Public information does not show that it accelerated maturation, changed the liquid, or independently selected the final whisky.
That distinction matters. Whisky maturation is the physical process in which spirit changes over time in a cask, through interactions with wood, oxygen, and the storage environment. Analytical monitoring is a separate activity: measuring or classifying changes so distillers can better understand them. SmokeDNAi belongs primarily in that second category.
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Port Ellen closed in 1983 and remained shut for more than four decades. Diageo announced plans to revive it in 2017, and the rebuilt distillery reopened on March 19, 2024. The reopening was part of a broader reported £185 million investment in reviving Port Ellen and Brora and developing Scotch whisky visitor experiences; that figure was not an investment specifically in SmokeDNAi.
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The new site is designed to allow experimentation, with features including experimental stills, a ten-part spirit safe, and an on-site laboratory. Those facilities provide context for a project that treats whisky-making not only as production, but also as a subject for closer study. Diageo’s reopening announcement describes the distillery’s return and its experimental facilities.
How SmokeDNAi appears to work
Diageo’s public description does not disclose enough technical detail to establish the system’s model architecture, training data, statistical methods, accuracy, or whether it should strictly be called machine learning. A careful summary of the described process is:
- Analyze samples: Chemical characteristics of whisky are examined.
- Organize patterns: Components and their relationships are grouped or classified.
- Interpret flavor and smoke: The system relates patterns to sensory descriptors and maturation characteristics.
- Visualize the results: The patterns can be presented as maps or images that help communicate how the profiles differ.
This is not the same as an image being a literal picture of smoke inside a bottle, nor does a visual resemblance prove two whiskies will taste alike. The imagery is a way to represent data. Diageo’s Port Ellen page presents SmokeDNAi as a way to explore the development of smoke during maturation.
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- THE OFFICIAL WHISKY GLASS - In the long and illustrious history of whisky, there has never been a single definitive glass that the whisky world could call its own. Now, following in the tradition of Scottish innovation, the Glencairn Glass has arrived. The Glencairn Glass’ roots lie in the traditional nosing and tasting glasses used by master blenders and connoisseurs around the world.
- ENHANCING YOUR WHISKY EXPERIENCE - The unique and stylish shape has been crafted with eminent care to enhance the enjoyment of single malts and aged blends. The tapered mouth allows and ease of drinking not associated with traditional nosing glasses. While capturing that all-important bouquet. The wide bowl allows the fullest appreciation of the whisky’s colour and the solid base is designed to be easy on the hand.
- CRYSTAL WHISKY GLASSES - The Glencairn Glass can be found at major whisky festivals around the world and in many serious whisky bars. The glass is also used in distilleries across the globe. Since its launch in 2001 the glass has won numerous awards including the Queens Award for Innovation. Today, over 3 million glasses are sold annually and sales continue to grow.
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The name “SmokeDNA” should also be read as a metaphor. It does not mean the system sequenced biological DNA or found a literal gene for smoky flavor. “Chemical fingerprint” or “visual map of maturation chemistry” is more accurate.
The Gemini whiskies: two maturation paths to compare
SmokeDNAi was applied to Port Ellen Gemini Original and Gemini Remnant, a paired release of two 44-year-old single malts made from spirit distilled in 1978. Diageo says the whiskies came from three exceptional European oak casks. The pair is intended to show how different cask histories can lead related whisky in different directions.
- Gemini Original: 54.9% alcohol by volume (ABV), representing a conventional maturation path.
- Gemini Remnant: 53.6% ABV, associated with a rediscovered “remnant” cask linked to Port Ellen’s historic stock.
The official launch material listed a UK recommended retail price of £45,000 for the Gemini release/set, including duties and taxes. That is a launch-era UK figure for a collector-grade release, not a statement of current availability or a price for each bottle. Prices and access can vary by market.
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- ENHANCING YOUR WHISKY EXPERIENCE - The unique and stylish shape has been crafted with eminent care to enhance the enjoyment of single malts and aged blends. The tapered mouth allows and ease of drinking not associated with traditional nosing glasses. While capturing that all-important bouquet. The wide bowl allows the fullest appreciation of the whisky’s colour and the solid base is designed to be easy on the hand.
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Pairing whiskies of the same stated age and related provenance offers a useful case study: it can make differences in maturation more visible than looking at a single cask in isolation. It is not, however, a controlled experiment proving that an algorithm can predict every cask’s future or tell every drinker what they will like.
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An age statement tells you how long the whisky matured; it does not specify the flavor it will have at the end. Cask history and conditions matter, including:
- the oak species, cask size, and previous use;
- how the cask was prepared or seasoned, and what it previously held;
- where it sat in the warehouse and the surrounding temperature and climate;
- the spirit’s character and strength when it entered the cask; and
- the length of maturation and the interaction of all these factors over time.
These influences do not operate as a simple checklist where one variable guarantees one flavor. Compounds interact, and the same descriptor can reflect several chemical and sensory factors. Chemical analysis may help identify differences between casks, but a measured association does not by itself prove that one compound caused a particular taste or aroma.
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What the technology may help distillers do—and what it cannot show
If chemical and sensory patterns can be tracked consistently, tools of this kind may help whisky makers compare casks, investigate how smoke character develops, and build a more systematic vocabulary for maturation. Over time, that could support human decisions about cask selection or blending. SmokeDNAi’s public description does not establish that it can reliably predict a finished whisky’s taste, choose a winning cask, or reproduce a historic Port Ellen profile.
There are important limits to keep in view:
- Human tasting remains essential. Flavor judgments are subjective, and individual tasters can describe the same whisky differently.
- Chemical association is not consumer preference. Detecting a pattern linked to a descriptor does not show that most drinkers will enjoy it.
- Public methodology is limited. Diageo has not published enough detail for outsiders to assess accuracy, error rates, or reproducibility.
- A small showcase cannot prove universal performance. A paired, rare release is not evidence that the system works equally well across distilleries, spirit styles, casks, and warehouses.
- Visualization is not proof. A graphic can help explain data, but it is not a direct sensory test or a chemical photograph.
For those reasons, the most defensible description is decision support and visualization—not autonomous blending or accelerated aging. The master distiller, blender, and other whisky makers still have to interpret results, assess aroma and palate, and decide what character is desirable.
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AI can sound like a claim that tradition has been replaced by a machine. In this case, the more modest claim is also the more useful one: data tools may help distillers ask better questions about what has happened in a cask. They do not make decades of maturation happen on a computer.
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- THE OFFICIAL WHISKY GLASS - In the long and illustrious history of whisky, there has never been a single definitive glass that the whisky world could call its own. Now, following in the tradition of Scottish innovation, the Glencairn Glass has arrived. The Glencairn Glass’ roots lie in the traditional nosing and tasting glasses used by master blenders and connoisseurs around the world.
- ENHANCING YOUR WHISKY EXPERIENCE - The unique and stylish shape has been crafted with eminent care to enhance the enjoyment of single malts and aged blends. The tapered mouth allows and ease of drinking not associated with traditional nosing glasses. While capturing that all-important bouquet. The wide bowl allows the fullest appreciation of the whisky’s colour and the solid base is designed to be easy on the hand.
- CRYSTAL WHISKY GLASSES - The Glencairn Glass can be found at major whisky festivals around the world and in many serious whisky bars. The glass is also used in distilleries across the globe. Since its launch in 2001 the glass has won numerous awards including the Queens Award for Innovation. Today, over 3 million glasses are sold annually and sales continue to grow.
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There is a commercial and cultural dimension, too. A visualization can give consumers a new way to hear the story of an exceptionally rare whisky, while analytical work may eventually help makers compare maturation paths. But striking imagery is not evidence that a whisky tastes better, and technology cannot make a rare release’s price or scarcity a measure of its quality. The Gemini launch price belongs in the context of an ultra-premium collectible, not as a typical whisky-buying benchmark.
Nor should SmokeDNAi be confused with other projects described as AI-made whisky. A system used to study cask-aged spirit is doing a different job from a project that uses algorithms to assist with recipe development. The headline claim that AI is “aging” Port Ellen whisky overstates what the available evidence supports.
What remains unknown
Diageo has not publicly established whether SmokeDNAi will guide future Port Ellen releases, be applied across other Scotch brands, or develop into a predictive cask-selection system. The key questions for evaluating any future claims will be whether the method is explained clearly, whether its predictions are tested against human tasting and later outcomes, and whether it helps whisky makers without flattening the variety that makes casks distinctive.
For now, SmokeDNAi is a research lens on maturation—not a shortcut around it. Port Ellen’s experiment may make some chemical and flavor differences easier to discuss, but the whisky’s age still came from time in the cask, and human expertise remains central to deciding what those differences mean.
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