Clynelish 14 Year Old Whisky Review!

My first Clynelish review, and it's been a long time since I last tried their flagship bottling. This should be interesting!

As part of Diageo's 'Classic Malts' range, this one is a bit of an outlier. How so? Well rather than being bottled at the minimum alcoholic strength of 40% or the slightly better 43% like most of its stable-mates, Clynelish 14-year old weighs in at 46%. Although there's no official word on chill filtration it does seem to be less affected by that nasty process than the others, and it also appears to have slightly less added colouring than many of its siblings. Which is a very good thing! It's said to be a coastal Highland whisky, and it is actually lightly peated, but don't go expecting an Islay or Island-style experience here. In fact experienced peated whisky drinkers will find it difficult to detect any trace of peat whatsoever. There's plenty of flavour, but it's lighter in character than some may expect when they read that description. Clynelish single malt is actually known for a waxy note that is attributed to oily build-up in their feints receiver, the contents of which is fed back into the spirit stills during distillation after being combined with the incoming low wines from the wash stills. They discovered the cause when the receiver was emptied and thoroughly cleaned out in the past, resulting in the spirit losing its waxy qualities. Since then when cleaning time comes around the contents are tipped back into the feints tank after cleaning.

Clynelish Distillery is located in the remote village of Brora near the north-east coast of the Scottish Highlands, around 75 minute's drive north of Inverness. The word Clynelish translates roughly to "grassy slope" in Gaelic, referring to the slight hill that the distillery sits on. The label on this whisky states "originally established 1819", which is technically correct, but things aren't quite that simple. The original Clynelish distillery did open in 1819, but the current and much larger distillery opened in 1968 across the road from that original site, with the original then closing for around a year before re-opening, and later being re-named as Brora Distillery. The now-legendary Brora closed in 1983, alongside quite a few others under the same owners (United Distillers/DCL/Diageo), although the buildings still stand and some of the warehouses are used to mature casks of modern Clynelish. From 1969 to 1973 Brora produced heavily-peated whisky to satisfy the blenders' demand while Islay was in severe drought and Caol Ila was being rebuilt (otherwise Brora may have never existed), while from 1973-1983 it produced a mix of lightly-peated and unpeated spirit. To date I've only had the privilege of tasting a couple of Brora single malts (one example reviewed here), both of which were phenomenal and deserving of the cult status that the name enjoys. In late 2017 it was announced that Brora, along with Port Ellen on Islay, would be re-opened, with both expected to start producing again in late 2020.

The modern Clynelish is quite a large operation, with ten washbacks, six stills and an annual production capacity of nearly five million litres per year. Around 95% of that production goes into various Johnnie Walker blended whiskies, particularly Gold Label. The current flagship 14-year old single malt that we're looking at today first appeared back in 2004, and like many of Diageo's malts there isn't much information on cask type, chill filtration or colouring available. In my opinion there's definitely some added colouring at work here, and possibly a little chill filtration, but certainly to a lesser extent than many other whiskies. I would assume it to be matured in refill ex-bourbon casks, but there are rumours of a few refill ex-sherry casks being in the mix as well. This expression retails at around $100 AUD here in Australia, which is quite reasonable for a 14-year old single malt at 46% ABV. Let's get to it!

Clynelish 14-Year Old, 46%. Brora, Scotland.

Unknown maturation, suspected lightly chill filtered & light added colouring.

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Very soft to start with, with powdery red apples and a little chalk dust. Opens up with some craft glue & warmed honey, and a slight nip - but only if you get too eager. With more time, soft malt and honey and a light whiff of rock salt. 

Texture: Light-medium weight, soft and waxy with a drying salty tang.

Taste: Surprisingly gentle on entry, with more honey, soft dusty malt, waxy red apples and hints of banana & melon. Then a nice pinch of salt, drying and slightly astringent, with a very tiny puff of earthy peat underneath. 

Finish: The salt continues, with a few drying spices thrown in. Warm (not hot) cinnamon, and a touch of white pepper. Then the malt returns, but it's damp now, and hints of those waxy red apples following behind. 

Score: 3 out of 5. Almost a 3.5 though. 

Notes: A very enjoyable whisky, easy drinking with a few nice points of difference setting it apart. A great example of a northern Highland whisky here, and in fact it's definitely in the realm of an ex-bourbon cask Old Pulteney or maybe even a Highland Park without that Orkney peat. Although I was quite surprised to find that tiny puff of peat in this Clynelish, I don't remember encountering that on previous experiences with this whisky. This malt could easily square up to all of the core expressions from those aforementioned further-north distilleries, most of which are bottled at 40-43% and at younger ages or with no age statement, so there's very good value for money on offer here.

It may not be the most complex malt out there, but for a core / flagship expression, and considering that price point, it'd make for a great daily drinker. And huge kudos must be given to Diageo for bottling this Clynelish 14-year old at 46% and holding back, at least partially, on the colouring and chill filtration. They could've easily bottled it at 43% with added colouring and chill filtration, as is the case with most of the Classic Malts range, and it probably wouldn't have affected total sales to any massive extent. But they chose to present this particular whisky more naturally, and we should be thanking them for it!

Cheers!