It’s time to savour Clynelish once again


November 17, 2025

It’s time to savour Clynelish once again

We either don’t have or can no longer find (you never know with cats) this year’s Special Release, but that won’t stop us from enjoying a few Clynelish before Christmas. It’s worth noting that we’ll also have four or five Brora later on that we’ve never tried before! Anyway, today it’s Clynelish, and we’re diving in a bit at random...

This is not a Blend 2015/2025 (50%, Compass Box, LMDW Itinéraires, single malt, bourbon barrel, 2025)

This is not a Blend 2015/2025 (50%, Compass Box, LMDW Itinéraires, single malt, bourbon barrel, 2025)
Well, we’ve been well and truly had—and quite happily so—by both Compass Box and that dear old Magritte, since this is clearly a single malt and not a blend! Whether that’s enough to conclude it was indeed a pipe on Magritte’s painting, I’m not entirely sure… Anyway, here’s a vatting of seven casks of Clynelish, finished (can one really say that?) in ex-Bowmore casks for eight weeks. Wait, you’re right, it might well only be a single malt on paper, when in fact it’s more of a blended malt—an in-cask blend, if you will… So, the plot thickens… Colour: white wine. Nose: a young, fresh and fruity Clynelish, full of golden apple and only mildly waxy, marked by seawater and, let’s say it, Bowmore, whose mere droplets are often enough to shift the style of any vatting. With water: more Clynelish, less Bowmore, with some alpine honey. Mouth (neat): it’s a blend, but it’s excellent. I mean it’s clearly a blend, AND it’s excellent. Lemon drops, brine, beeswax, liquorice wood. With water: it’s really very very very very good, just don’t add too much water. Finish: this is not a finish. Comments: excellent. I might have called it Clynemore or Bowenish, but that would’ve felt a bit less ‘Magritte’. Still, not exactly a stratospheric score…
SGP:562 - 90 points.

Clynelish 9 yo 2015/2025 (53.5%, Adelphi, first fill bourbon barrel, cask #51261, 215 bottles)

One still fondly remembers that Clynelish Adelphi had released for Whiskyfun’s 20th anniversary, complete with a little magnifying glass dangling from the neck so one could actually read the label. Because let’s be honest, Adelphi’s labels are still terribly hard to read—unless you’ve now got one of those new augmented specs like the Ray Ban-Meta or Nexora, which make things considerably easier. Even if, granted, you do look a bit of a muppet with those things on your face. Anyway… Colour: white wine. Nose: brilliant, this is exactly the Compass Box, only without the Bowmore. Glorious waxes, herbs, fruit peels, tangerines, chalk and a few fresh mushrooms. With water: damp earth, wonderful. Mouth (neat): but how good is this! Just perfect, on wax-covered tangerines, pepper and honey. With water: can it get any more perfect than perfect? Possibly, as a touch of lime just rounds it all off. Finish: the ending of a great whisky is always a little sad, isn’t it? Comments: who was it that wrote that noble souls are not made to wait for years to show their worth?
SGP:651 - 91 points.

Blimey, we’re already too far up…

Warning

By the way, be careful — there are quite a few dodgy online shops around at the moment which clone legitimate sites and display heavily slashed prices. Of course, they’re scams, they’ll take your money and never send the bottles. Basically, if it looks too good, it is. Don’t fall for it. Same goes for semi-private offers on Facebook, for example. Some are even taking advantage of the current dip in the market, so extreme deals might seem more believable. Codswallop!

There, we go on…

Clynelish 17 yo 2008/2025 (56.3%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice, LMDW Itinéraires, 1st fill bourbon barrel)

Colour: white wine. Nose: fresh as a daisy, more on fruit, and I was about to say gentler than the previous ones, very lovely but perhaps a little less distinctly Clynelish. They may have cleaned the legendary receiver (private joke). With water: as often with G&M, it goes very cloudy. We really ought to pay another visit to their filters, which we already marvelled at some twenty years ago… Anyway, apple juice and beeswax. Mouth (neat): oooh this is good, more precise than the nose, more peppery, and oilier at the same time. Green apples cooked with pepper and honey. With water: this is still a gentler Clynelish than most, one that’s settled down and now seems to sit somewhere between the hefty neighbours to the north and south. That’s it, Pulteney and Glenmorangie. Finish: same. Comments: magnificent, just a bit… gentler.
SGP:651 - 88 points.

Candlekitty 15 yo 2010/2025 (55%, Decadent Drams, Decadent Drinks, refill barrel, 254 bottles)

We’re very fond of the name ‘Candlekitty’, even if at WF Towers it mostly makes the cats laugh… Colour: white wine. Nose: magnificent and rather different, in that it starts off on celeriac and turnips before veering into more familiar waxy and honeyed territories. And some overripe apple. It’s already quite intriguing at this point… With water: crisp, clean, perfect, wax, apple, barley, chalk. Mouth (neat): superlative, no need to labour the point, this mix of citrus, waxes and earth is stunning. And I swear there are echoes of ‘Old’ Clynelish. Yes, we did recently pour ourselves a lovely dram of the old 12-year-old, so we’ve got a solid comparison. With water: is Clynelish the greatest malt in Scotland? What if the distillery weren’t such an eyesore? What if it looked more like Strathisla? Or even Brora? Finish: long, flawlessly waxy and slightly more lemony. Comments: perhaps we’re suffering from that condition said to be quite treatable—Clynelitis morbifuga. Apparently best managed with regular doses of magnums, according to the faculty.
SGP:551 - 91 points.

Clynelish 1993/2022 (49.6%, Càrn Mòr, for The Whisky Exchange, Celebration of the Cask, bourbon barrel, cask #11080, 125 bottles)

One of the bottles we commented on during a tasting (they call it a masterclass, but I rather dislike the term) at this year’s Whisky Show in London. A superb event, with extraordinary folk and an audience of truly intergalactic calibre. Colour: white wine. Nose: pure beeswax, overripe apples, mandarin skins and damp earth. Slightly shy during the ‘big tasting’ in front of a crowd, but now, in the calm of Château WF, it’s speaking with clarity and elegance. Mouth (neat): but this is lovely. Let’s say bergamots in honey, wrapped in candle wax and a bit of pale earth, like albariza or chalky Champagne soil. Some lightly peppered apples enter a little later. Finish: long, with lemons arriving here as well. Comments: we’re very close to Candlekitty territory, though that one was a killer. Like all cats, you’ll say.
SGP:551 - 90 points.

Speaking of a knockout…

Clynelish 9 yo 2012/2021 (60.4%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 1st fill bourbon, #26.184, ‘Lychee Scented Candles’, 231 bottles)

Of course, the name is a bit alarming—I mean, lychees? But it’s Clynelish… You’ll tell me there’s another young one called ‘Comfort and Joy’, which sounds a tad less menacing… Colour: white wine. Nose: well done, now we’re chasing those famous lychees, and not finding them. That said, there are faint touches of Mei-Kwei-Lu in there, but they’re barely perceptible. In any case, the strength is blocking everything a bit. Only one way to fix that… With water: not so sure, a bit of furniture polish does come through, as well as some dried fruits, but the Clynelishness remains rather elusive in the end. Mouth (neat): hot but fruity, with loads of pepper. As for the lychees, perhaps another time—it’s far too powerful. With water: apple juice with honey, young Calvados, a hint of lemon liqueur. Finish: not all that long in the end. Comments: I feel this is a Clynelish of the sort we used to see quite a bit twenty years ago, not all of which had their full credentials, so to speak. Still, a very good young malt, lychee or no lychee.
SGP:541 - 83 points.

Clynelish 24 yo 1972/1997 (61.3%, OB, United Distillers Rare Malts)

Of course we’ve tasted this baby many times before, but the note published on WF is pitiful—cramped, imprecise and frankly humiliating. That was back in 2005. Only the score still feels sound: 91/100, so it’s high time we revisited it, twenty years on and with fresh perspective. Twenty years, my friend! United Distillers, naturally, were Diageo’s predecessors. And this bottle has had some time to age as well, though at 61%, that’s bound to be slow and minimal. Colour: gold. Nose: right, a beehive, beeswax, pollen and honeys of all kinds. With water: little change, really, but it’s so elegant and texturally perfect on the nose that adding much more would almost feel vulgar. Mouth (neat): all I can say is that this is magical—sharp, nervy, unsettling, demanding, and utterly sublime. With water: wax, quince jelly, forest honey. Finish: long and on similar notes. Comments: let’s speak plainly since we’re among friends—these bottles gained massive reputation (including at WF) because, at the time of their release, they were among the few that captured the distillery characters of Diageo and its forerunners with such precision. Think of Benromach or Bladnoch, for example. Since then, the landscape has changed, there’s been a flood of very high-level indie bottlings, and so these Rare Malts—unless it’s for long-closed distilleries—may have become ever so slightly less essential. But this one, for instance, remains magical. There’s even a drop of lychee liqueur in there. Yes, really.
SGP:651 - 92 points.

Clynelish 28 yo 1996/2025 (49.9%, Casky Hong Kong and Kanpaikai, refill bourbon hogshead, cask #11444, 171 bottles)

Colour: straw. Nose: acacia honey strikes first, and while it’s among the gentlest of honeys, it’s quickly joined by apple juice, farmhouse cider, hay after a summer rain, quince jelly from grandma’s cupboard, and little medicinal salves… Mouth: the connection with the Rare Malts is so clear, it’s practically the same whisky two decades on. It’s like listening to Joni Mitchell’s re-recordings—timeless, iconic, no matter the age. Finish: little lemons quickly take command. Comments: apologies, that was a swift one, but it really is a marvellous Clynelish. And-I-love-those-little-gherkin-notes. A great spirit, across all categories.
SGP:561 - 91 points.

It’s no doubt more than time for one last one...

Clynelish 21 yo 1992/2014 (51.6%, Cadenhead, Small Batch, bourbon hogsheads, 592 bottles)

We’re happy to report that these were still ‘matured in oak’. Always room for a harmless chuckle. Or so we hope—Campbeltown being, after all, a world of its own, with its own sensitivities… Colour: straw. Nose: clear line wax, overripe apples, multifloral pollen and sweet oriental bread, soft and just slightly sugary. With water: on very overripe apple, powdered cinnamon and acacia honey. Mouth (neat): that trademark honeyed softness, very much on overripe apple as with these well-known batches. Perhaps not Nobel-worthy, nor even double-gold-in-San-Francisco material, but still absolutely excellent. Lovely citrus too. Finish: just slightly ashy, faintly smoky, and mostly buried under five kilos of pollen. Coffee touches. Comments: excellent, just a bit less precise than others, as if the reduction had been done with a slightly rough hand.
SGP:561 - 86 points.

Nine Clynelish — I think that’s enough. Clynelish, we’ll see you again next year, okay? We’ll compare your 2025 SR with the likely 2026 one in October or November 2026, okay? I almost forgot; beyond the people running it, a distillery is of course a person in its own right.

(Merci to Grégoire and Morten)

Check the index of all Clynelish we've tasted