Clynelish 10 yo 2010/2020 (57.4%, Elixir Distillers 'The Single Malts Of Scotland', cask #700051, barrel, 228 bottles)
This one was bottled exclusively for the USA I believe. Colour: pale straw. Nose: slightly dusty at first, but then quickly opens and becomes rather creamy with obvious vanilla tones. I would not say it is factor 11 Clynelish, but it's very elegant with these wee notes of bubblegum, gorse flower and sandalwood. With water: lemony, fresh, chalky, citric and with a crisp cereal note and some yeasty aspects too. Mouth: as with the nose this is a sweeter and lighter style Clynelish, but there's this rather direct bubblegum note - which I enjoy - and more notes of gorse flower, canvass, muddled herbs and some grassy olive oil. With water: there's some elegant waxiness coming through now, along with some rather evocative and medical herbal notes such as wintergreen and myrtle. Heather honey, shilling ales and a little umami miso note. Finish: medium, lightly drying, peppery, gently herbal and some trace vanilla still lingering. Comments: Clynelish factor 6 I would say. It's a lovely drop, but we've had better 2010s.
SGP: 641 - 85 points.

Clynelish 10 yo 2010/2020 (57.5%, Elixir Distillers 'The Single Malts Of Scotland', cask #700050, barrel)
Colour: pale straw. Nose: fresher, more on fabrics, chalk, green and white fruits, rubbed lemon skins and putty. There remains a slight dustiness in the background. Also some grassy and bubblegum notes. The Clynelishness remains similarly subtle. With water: canvass, white bread, some nicely bitter ales, putty again, some camphor. Nice, easy, laid back Clynelish. Mouth: a rather active cask again that offers us spiced vanilla cream, American cream soda, nutmeg, some melon, barley water, sunflower oil, shoe polish and sweet cereals dusted with icing sugar. There is a soft waxiness but it's rather muted. The Clynelish 'accent' is getting a little lost in here. With water: feels drier, leaner and little punchier when diluted, moves more towards peppery and cereal tones and there's a little more overall waxy punch. Finish: good length, lemony, fresh, chalky, mineral and with more bubbly fruitiness. Comments: I prefer this one ever so slightly, but I generally want a bit more 'Clynelish' from my Clynelish.
SGP: 551 - 86 points.

Lynch Isle 20 yo 2000/2020 (53.3%, North Star, sherry butt & Portuguese brandy butt finish, 693 bottles)
I think we can safely assume this was once Clynelish, but has it survived this pincer movement finishing? Let's see… Colour: pale gold. Nose: it's like many of the casks from this 2000 batch of 'Lynch Isle', it's not exactly like the classical Lynch Isle we all know and love. There's waxiness and salinity but a hugely bready, doughy aspect as well. Rye bread spices, pumpkinseed oil and big notes of strong olive oil. I don't detect much from the finish thus far. With water: wet bracken, musty earthen cellars, tobacco pouch, brown bread and canvass. Boisterous but undeniably very good. Mouth: big, sharp, spicy, prickly and with many wee sooty notes that threaten to tip over into a nicely lean and flinty smokiness. A few spiced and preserved fruits that hint at things like brandy and old sherry I suppose. Either way, a skilful hopscotch with casks I think. With water: we're really into oils, breads, mechanical rags, baking parchment, wee medicinal touches and this ever-persistent spiciness. Feels younger and stronger than it is, but that's no criticism. Finish: long, bready, oily and with this very savoury and succulent umami and herbal quality. Comments: I can't wait to visit Lynch Isle distillery again after lockdown. Take a tour, enjoy a bowl of their trademark porridge vindaloo, visit their new Port bodega and maybe even go on the Tuk Tuk rides once again. Here's to the future!
SGP: 562 - 88 points.

Clynelish 21 yo 1999/2020 (57.6%, Elixir Distillers '21 years of friendship', cask #305054, sherry butt, 380 bottles)
Bottled to celebrate 21 years of friendship between TWE founder Sukhinder Singh and Toru Suzuki from The Mash Tun in Tokyo. Colour: deep orangey gold. Nose: an extremely aromatic and scented profile at first. I don't think sherry and Clynelish usually pair too well (as Serge has already said on these pages more than a few times I suppose) but the initial impression here is one of peaches, nectarines, pot pourri, dried flowers, tangerine peel, Earl Grey tea and crystallised citrus fruits. I find it really enchanting so far, with a sense of the distillate and sherry getting along extremely well together - but then again, I suppose it is supposed to be about friendship. With water: fresher and lighter on its feet now, it becomes more about breads, savoury pastries, more of these dried floral notes, more teas, exotic ones this time, and hints of wild strawberry and dried raspberry. Mouth: big, leathery, spicy and syrupy but also with an immediate fruitiness that takes in blood orange sorbet, juniper, dried mango, melon and papaya. Strawberry jam, red fruit teas and a touch of chocolate liqueur. The waxiness of the Clynelish feels more like a syrupiness here, conjoining with all these jams and fruits from the sherry in an unusual but beautiful fashion. With water: juicy, increasingly jammy, syrupy, fruity and showing all of these very fleshy and pulpy ripe fruit qualities. The sweetness remains wonderfully natural and there's this warm glow of pepper and wax from the Clynelish behind it all. Finish: long, full of red and green fruit cordials, various teas, herbal infusions, pomegranate syrup, strawberry wine and even gummy bears. Comments: in some ways it is an unusual Clynelish, but the overall impression is of a superbly fresh, fruity and distinctly complex malt that reveals itself in many layers and works well with a little water. Undeniably a worthy dram for celebrating a long friendship I'd say, and a rare example of Clynelish and sherry working in harmony.
SGP: 651 - 91 points.

Clynelish 1972 (57.6%, Cadenhead 'White label', cask #5645, sherry, early 1990s)
Another of this series which was done for Oddbins I believe. Colour: deep mahogany. Nose: mahogany indeed! Rosewood too, along with other ancient varnished hardwoods, old furniture oils, pot pourri, waxes, liquorice and verbena. I find this batch of casks rather an extreme and individualistic take on Clynelish, one of the few examples where sherry seems to work. Although, you really have to be in the mood to wrestle with this kind of beast. Strong fruit teas, waxed canvass, natural tar, green walnut liqueur, aniseed bitters, shoe polish, stropping leather and vapour rubs. Hugely impressive, but a demanding and challenging dram. With water: a little easier with all these quite gloriously scented and aromatic hardwoods, dried flowers, aged orange peels, (cheng pi?) and umami sauce. Also things like caraway, venison salami and toasted fennel seed. Mouth: rose syrup, strawberry wine, fruit cordials and walnut oil. Salted liquorice, natural tar, wood resins, black coffee and quince. Many dark fruits stewing in old Cognac, some peppery tannins grip around the edges as well with a hint of caramelising muscovado sugar. With water: easier and more luscious now. Lots of red fruit jams and cordials. Rose syrup, Turkish delight, aniseed, cough mixtures, herbal bitters and many old school ointments and medicines. Finish: long, leathery, earthy and bursting with leaf mulch, tobacco, espresso, rancio and bitter herbal liqueurs. Comments: These are tough casks in my view, and in some ways it may be slaughtering a sacred cow or two, but there are aspects which are a little too challenging at times. However, they remain unequivocally impressive with their sheer force of personality.
SGP: 572 - 91 points.

Brora 29 yo 1972/2002 (51.0%, Douglas Laing, Old and Rare 'Platinum', 228 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: if you could peat smoke some camphor in a kiln… that familiar and pretty sublime mix of oily sheep wool, putty, gelatinous peat smoke, waxed canvass, medical vapour rubs and many wee flinty and brighter mineral tones jangling in the background. Mineral salts, beach foam, distant farmyard, putty, iodine. Really, it's the complexity that gets me every time with these early 70s Broras. With water: sandalwood and a more coastal accented aroma that includes ramen broth with seaweed, beach sand, coastal flowers and then a more assertive farmyard note. Mouth: feels light on arrival but the oiliness of the distillate and the peat smoke is wonderfully palpable. There's an encroaching herbaceous quality that rises gently in the background, herbal toothpaste and herbal smoke, medicines, tar extract, lemon infused olive oil, umami broth and bouillon. It's not the most showstopping 1972 Brora, but it possesses an easiness and a directness of flavour that is utterly charming and luminously pleasurable. With water: sharper, saltier, fresher, more coastal and this sense of youthfulness. Dried herbs, heather flowers, bitter ales, miso, tar, hessian and camphor again. Just totally beautiful really. Finish: long, the smoke is rather dense and quilted but not at all harsh, everything is very silky, perfectly balanced and - dare I say it - smooth. Briny and smoked olive oil notes in the aftertaste. Comments: At times you might think this one was fragile but it always comes back and re-asserts itself in new ways. Another sublime and utterly distinctive 1972 Brora.
SGP: 575 - 93 points.

Macduff 11 yo 'Batch 6' (48%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co, 1237 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: lemon, cereal, straw, bailed hay, meadow flowers, barley sugars. Fresh, simple, easy and yet with a reasonably firm and malty 'weight' about it. In time it gets a little more bready and beery. Mouth: this beery quality dominates here, rather bitter and peppery at first. Cooking oils, breads, mashed veg and potatoes. Not the biggest fan of this one to be honest. A sense of acrylic and plasticine too. Finish: medium, slightly salty, brown bread, toasted seeds and plain cooking oils. Comments: It's fine, but I find it a bit of an 'ungenerous' style if I'm honest.
SGP: 561 - 78 points.

Longmorn 22 yo 1997/2020 (58.7%, Elixir Distillers 'Single Malts Of Scotland', cask #163301, hogshead, 240 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: sometimes you 'smell' colours in whisky, this one smells yellow. Lots of buttercups, turmeric and bailed hay. This big vibe of summery fields and meadows, many flowers, pollens, dusty cereals, oatcakes and baking soda. It's not a super fruity example but it's a profile I find very attractive. With water: rice crackers, oatcakes, sandalwood, gorse and dried apricot in a flapjack. An elegant and easy balance. Mouth: a nice natural tension between sweetness and more bitter and pithy aspects. Barley sugars and malt extract, orange juice, peaches in syrup, bergamot and orange travel sweets. Alongside that you have a little hessian and white pepper. With water:  richer, firmer, slightly more waxy and textural. Wintergreen, pinecones, myrtle and some sense of lemon peel. Finish: good length, peppery, warming, some general wood spices and vanilla. Comments: All very good, it's an easy yet deceptively complex and rather summery feeling sort of malt. Fresh, light and playful with a feeling of perfect maturity. It's just perhaps a little too subtle, lacks some more obvious Longmorn juiciness.
SGP: 651 - 86 points.

Longmorn-Glenlivet 15 yo (46%, Cadenhead, Dumpy, -/+ 1980)
A very rare one that I never saw before. There is a reasonable possibility that this would be from a parcel of 1964 casks that were also bottled elsewhere in this series, however as with so many old bottles it's not really possible to be sure. Colour: deep gold. Nose: it has this really textural, almost gelatinous fruitiness that only old Longmorn and Bowmore seems to possess. However, it is not immediately tropical, rather this is more on peaches in syrup, nectarines, apricot and flower honey. Vividly fruity though and with this superbly elegant thread of waxiness beneath. Even some hints of expensive olive oil and pomegranate. You also get this rather signature 'Cadenhead dumpy calling card' note of metal polish in there as well. Mouth: thick, plush and almost jammy, this sense of your mouth glued shut by old school, glycerol-textured distillate. Honeys, pollens, waxed hessian, herbal medicines and even some glimmers of cereals and cooking oils. It's rather peppery too, with this sense of herbal, dry waxiness growing over time. Big, mouth-coating, dry and rather powerful old style whisky. Oily rags, cooking oils, bouillon broth, mineral oils, something of a dry, well-aged Chenin blanc. A wine drinker's whisky as Serge might have said around 2004. I find the complexity grows over time. Finish: good length, warming, a sense of slightly salty, dried out honey, mineral oils, plush cereals, camphor, hessian, crystallised citrus fruit peels and a persistent and beautiful waxiness. Comments: a Longmorn that speaks with a Glenlochy or a Glenugie accent? It's certainly quite a ride that begins rather more classical but really evolves towards something very complex, grown up and old school in the most beautiful sense. Proof that old Longmorn was really a distillate that could sing almost anywhere from 5 to 50 years old.
SGP: 662 - 92 points.

Edradour 11 yo 2008/2020 (58.3%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, cask #372, 1st fill oloroso sherry butt, 709 bottles)
Colour: ruby amber. Nose: it's funny how these days you can almost spot different companies by the style of sherry cask they've been using this past decade or so. This one has a very 'Edradour' style about it. All on red and game meats, sods of turf, freshly brewed coffee, cranberry gravy and wee touches of wood spice and maraschino cherry juices. Spicy, meaty, earthy, punchy and rather powerful in style. Certain aspects are reminiscent of early batch Aberlour A'bunadhs in some respects. With water: a brief waft of Cuban cigar smoke, then shoe polish, boot leather and some slightly more fruity and playful notes, like a fruiter style of red chilli and strawberry jam. Works very well with water. Mouth: richly meaty and almost quite salty, like strips of Iberico ham and bone dry oloroso. Really excellent in my book. More notes of cranberries, hot paprika, toasted nuts and bacon jam. With water: now we're getting into very direct flavours of dark chocolate coated coffee beans, walnut liqueur, meat soup, biltong, black pepper and tobacco leaf. Finish: good length, drying, warming and very spicy. A rather vaporous impression of cough sweets, medical herbs and cherry liqueur. Comments: quite brilliant I think, and takes to water like a barefooted Timothy Dalton in License To Kill. It's a rather beefy and boisterous style of sherry, which may be an acquired taste for some, but for those of you who are self-confessed coveters of the 'sherry bomb', this way pleasure lies…
SGP: 462 - 88 points.

Ballechin 14 yo 2005/2020 (58.8%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, cask #158, 2nd fill sherry hogshead, 296 bottles)
Colour: light amber. Nose: streaky bacon on an iron skillet, this is usually my immediate impression with Ballechin and sherry. Cured meats, ink, tar, farmyard muddiness, graphite, crushed aspirin, iodine and a rather precisely metallic kind of peat smoke. Brittle, sharp and powerfully assertive. With water: getting funkier now, all on pickled walnuts, brine, damp earthen wine cellars, gherkins and camphor. Still some notes of ink, carbon paper and a rather sharp peat smoke. Mouth: it's a very leathery kind of sherry mingling with chilli infused dark chocolate, beef jerky, tar, embrocations, dry madeira and peat embers. Overall this impression of drying, metallic and very sharp peat smoke - that almost has acidity about it - remains dominant. With water: saltier, meatier, leaner, more walnuts, hessian, tar, brine and pickled notes. Grown up whisky. Finish: long, salty, leathery, tarry, meaty, peppery and earthy. Comments: these Ballechins are extreme whiskies that take no prisoners. What I like is that they are very much their own style, you know you aren't just tasing 'another peated mainlander'. What's also neat is that it shares some clear DNA with the Edradour, although that may be the sherry talking.
SGP: 476 - 87 points.