Clynelish 22 yo 1989/2011 The Whisky Agency ‘Moody Lions’ vs Clynelish 27 yo 1982/2010 The Perfect Dram
As far as whisky goes, I am convinced Clynelish, together with it’s silent alter ego, are clearly the jewels of the Northern Highlands. Will the new Dornoch distillery – whose proprietors Simon and Phil Thomson in their quest for old style character – give this jewel a run for its money?
Clynelish 22 yo 1989/2011 The Whisky Agency ‘Moody Lions’ 50.9%
Nose: Look it’s not a 1972 but this is excellent itself. On one hand it’s still got that light honey, yellow flowers and pollen, hot cream or butter pastries in the over, and also some hot minerals like hot clay. Something also just brings to mind yellow stonefruit. Yet there’s also something very 90s about it, more bracing sort of dusty white pepper, paraffin wax and scented candles.
Palate: Hot gravel, and molten honey in a candy pot – soft ball stage. Hot butter, smoking flints and tart yellow plums. Quite a feisty whisky for 50%. Wax drippings, flash of white heat. But also quite ‘dusty’ – not musty or dirsty, but the smells from the bottom of a box of cereals. Cleaned leather, dried citrus peel.
Finish: Long, dusty and dry, honey and flints.
Clynelish 27 yo 1982/2010 The Perfect Dram 55.1%
Nose: Quite a bigger punch in this one, and big natural waxiness, really quite unbirdled here. Oak lactones and a myriad little clean phenolic notes ranging from leather to bouquet garni to soot to camphor and old cabinets to kiwi boot polish and back again, hard to say because each is just a fleck of a scent but together makes this amazing.
Palate: Big and yellow again, immensely waxy and thick. Also replete with these same clean phenolics that seem to keep changing – now castor soap and concrete, herb pouches, dried eucalyptus, still see kiwi black somewhere in there. Really maintains this thick waxiness. Also slightly smoky.
Finish: Long, waxy, a little dirty and sooty. The feeling of chewing on the fresh peel of an orange. This is why this is one of my favourite distilleries.
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