Here is our monthly trio of Clynelish


August 18, 2026

Here is our monthly trio of Clynelish,
plus three strange bonuses

It seems to me that last month, in July, we declared, admittedly in a somewhat peremptory fashion, that we wanted to taste some new Clynelish, or at any rate Clynelishes we had not yet tried, every month. Or something along those lines. Now August is already well under way, so it is high time we put our money where our mouth is. Off we go…

Clynelish 8 yo 2018/2026 (50%, The Cooper’s Choice, Golden Cut Collection, bourbon, cask #303893, 360 bottles)Clynelish 8 yo 2018/2026 (50%, The Cooper’s Choice, Golden Cut Collection, bourbon, cask #303893, 360 bottles)

Clynelish 8 yo 2018/2026 (50%, The Cooper’s Choice, Golden Cut Collection, bourbon, cask #303893, 360 bottles)

We’ve already tasted some magnificent Clynelish from Cooper’s Choice/Vintage Malts Whisky Co. including a 1983/1996 whose only flaw was that it had been bottled at 40% vol. Or a 1971/2002 Cooper’s which, incidentally, was our 20,000th whisky two years ago. By the way, this is the youngest Clynelish we’ve tasted so far, let’s try to see whether the famous ‘black gunge’ was indeed present in the receiver… Colour: pale gold. Nose: precise, with as much candle wax as cider apples, then grapefruit and black radish. Touches of mandarins in brine. With water: chalk and liquorice wood come charging in. Mouth (neat): powerful, waxy but, once again, also full of tart fruits, with a texture that cannot help but remind us of Talisker. This isn’t the first time that’s happened. With water: even more so, although naturally without the peat, but with plenty of salted lemon. Those little mandarins in brine are back as well. Finish: long and much saltier than most Clynelish I’ve tasted, it seems to me. Apart from ‘Old’ Clynelish, of course. Comments: very impressive for an 8-year-old.
SGP:462 - 88 points.

Clynelish 12 yo 2013/2026 (51.8%, James Eadie, Distilleries of Great Britain & Ireland, recharred hogshead, cask # 327401, 355 bottles)

A recharred hogshead, possibly from Cambus Cooperage, Diageo’s cooperage unit that had replaced the old grain distillery. We’d visited it with the Malt Maniacs, and it had been very, very impressive. Colour: white wine. Nose: it’s naturally close, but fruitier and more vanilla-driven, with a slight feeling of IPA, pear, but also mandarin and pollen. A little liquid shoe polish and a touch of celery. Very nice indeed. With water: chalk and twigs. Classic. Mouth (neat): this time it falls into line with the 2018, only earthier, sharper, livelier, but less salty. With water: ah perfect, once again. I don’t know why, but yet again I’m thinking of Talisker. Perhaps because, in theory, the malted barley should come from the same maltings? (Ord). Finish: perfect. Rooty, powerful, still very textured. Lovely pepper. Comments: frankly, between both and as they say in Inverness, when it comes to quality, it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.
SGP:461 - 88 points.

Clynelish 12 yo 2013/2026 (54.5%, Lady of the Glen, hogshead, cask 231584, 295 bottles)

I think it’s brilliant to see independent Clynelish once again displaying the distillery’s name, rather than ‘The Cats’ Favourite Secret Highland’ and other such funny and sometimes even entertaining nonsense that was made compulsory for a while. But of course, nobody was fooled… And naturally, the risk here is that this baby will be virtually identical to the previous ones, but is that really a risk? Colour: full gold. Nose: what the colour was already suggesting, this is rather more coated in vanilla and fudge, even orange liqueur, but we know this style suits Clynelish perfectly well. All the more so since the little wild apples and candle wax are expressing themselves freely. With water: a little fresher than the others, at any rate a little less coated than the James E., but we’re talking about the thickness of a pencil line here, as we say. Mouth (neat): yet another perfect young Clynelish, this time we find a few touches of violet-flavoured liquorice on top of everything else, wax, cider, clementines, small shellfish, a little peppermint… With water: another little marvel, classic Clynelish, fresh, with slightly earthy fruits, citrus, a salty touch and, naturally, wax. Finish: perfect, a little more floral at this stage. Apples roasted with thyme honey, or something along those lines. Saltier aftertaste. Comments: now, has anyone ever tried making Clynelish-scented candles? In any case, I regret to inform you that I like all three of these young Clynelishes equally and couldn’t possibly score them differently. That’s the problem with hyper-focused line-ups, but what can you do…
SGP:551 - 88 points.

Bonus: we found the next baby lurking in the Clynelish box, and we’re going to taste it for the first time. That’s the kind of thing that can happen when you file everything alphabetically…

Chain Pier 5 yo 2019/2025 (54.5%, Hogshead Imports, virgin oak barrel, 259 bottles)

Here’s an experimental micro-distillery from John Crabbie that only operated in 2018 and 2019 and produced, just imagine, 39 casks in total. I had heard of it, but of course I’d never had the opportunity to taste it before… Colour: gold. Nose: little lemon sweets, lemon balm and lemongrass, baking soda, meringues, angelica… Well, none of this is bad at all, and it even holds its own after those wonderful young Clynelishes. At least for now… With water: the fresh wood comes to the fore. An Ikea warehouse, as we sometimes say. Mouth (neat): it’s good, but on the palate it’s really very wood-driven, coconut and vanilla, and I would never have said this was Scottish. I might even have thought it was grain whisky or some very adventurous young bourbon. With water: curiously, it recovers somewhat, with the citrus returning, along with curry, and even masala. Finish: same. Comments: above all, it’s great fun. There are some very lovely sides to it, others that leave us rather puzzled, including the woodiness, which is far too excessive for us.
SGP:650 - 77 points.

Would you believe it, there was a second one…

Chain Pier 6 yo 2019 (58.9%, Tri Carragh, 2nd fill red wine octave finish, 86 bottles)

Everything we love, octaves, red wine, finishings… But careful, this is second-fill, so you never know… Colour: white wine (amusing for red wine). Nose: my heart is torn. On the one hand there are little red berries, on the other it’s much less woody than the previous one. And there’s some lovely muesli. Right, let’s dig a little deeper… With water: three tonnes of porridge, turnips and raw carrots. Mouth (neat): very strange, but great fun. Tonnes of nutmeg, coffee dregs, chickpeas, dried ceps… Talk about something unusual! With water: the mushrooms take over, and what’s more, they’re very salty. But where on earth is all this coming from? Finish: very long, spicy and salty, in a style we’ve never encountered in malt whisky before and probably never will again. Comments: these two babies, and they really are babies, are impossible to tell apart in terms of quality, we’d need the codes and we simply don’t have them. Okay, one extra point for the dried cep powder, given what the stuff costs...
SGP:451 - 78 points.

But wait, there was another strange thing in the Clynelish box (which sits, would you imagine that, just before the Cragganmore and Craigellachie box…)

Crafty 3 yo 2022/2025 (60.2%, Fadandel, 1st fill oloroso octave, cask #PC0011, 75 bottles)

It’s probably good to know that Crafty was the original name of the Galloway Distillery in the Lowlands, and that consequently, whiskies bearing the name ‘Crafty’ are extremely rare. I don’t think we’re going to create a ‘Crafty’ section in our index, that wouldn’t be terribly useful, what do you think? Colour: full gold. Nose: this is much more classic than the Chain Piers, rounded, rich, well defined, very much on orange cakes and chocolate, Jaffa Cakes, orange blossom Turkish delight, nutmeg and all that. With water: closer to barley, but also rye, millet… Mouth (neat): I find this very good, there’s peppered chocolate, roasted lupin tea (very good), toasted buckwheat too, walnut cake, touches of ginger… With water: this one isn’t very Scottish in style either, you’d think you were in California instead. Lemony spices, sandalwood, incense, cardamom etc. In other words, a whisky for Armistead Maupin’s characters. Finish: lovely, long, spicy, almost oriental this time. Fig cakes. Comments: this stuff is really good! But the name, well, they should have asked a decent communications agency for advice. Crafty? Sounds like a cartoon for two-to-five-year-olds, doesn’t it?
SGP:571 - 83 points.

That reminds me, while we’re on the subject of craft, are there still any casks of Loch Ewe kicking around Scotland? Right, this little session has gone seriously off-piste, but it has made us want to add a few improbable and unknown whiskies to our traditional sessions from time to time. Goodness knows, there are myriads of them in our stocks, and while the alphabetical approach makes absolutely no sense in terms of styles, it does at least have the merit of amusing… the humble taster. Right, we’ll see how it goes, see you.

Check the index of all Clynelish we've tasted