Clynelish 14 - Honey, Heather and a hint of Sea Air

An author friend was kind enough to bring a bottle of the Clynelish 14-year-old single malt to the annual Solstice party my wife and I host. He was even kinder to leave it behind for people to continue sampling when he and his wife had to head for home.

The bottle did survive the night, but with rave reviews. I couldn't resist stealing an extra dram from it to write this review before returning the bottle,

The Clynelish Distillery (now owned by Diageo) has an interesting history: while there has been a Clynelish Distillery for hundreds of years (since 1819 in fact), this Clynelish Distillery was built in 1968 across the street from the original. The original simply didn't have the capacity to keep up with demand, so they copied the stills and built a new facility with more of them. You can find a full rundown of the history at the Malt Madness entry on Clynelish.

Clynelish hails from the northern highland coast of Scotland, in the same general region as Old Pulteney.

Compared to the Old Pulteney 12, the Clynelish is a lighter, more nuanced dram.

Clynelish 14 has a lovely golden color. The nose is honey and heather and salty sea air and a whiff of smoke. For me water, doesn't change the nose much.

This a wonderful whisky, with just enough complexity to keep it interesting. Just a little bit of water, and it's easy to over do it, and you're sipping spicy honey, The taste starts off sweet, jumps to a mildly spice pepper pop and then fades to a lovely, happy glow of pepper and honey and just a tiny bit of peat smoke on your tongue. And I do mean a tiny bit of peat - I have to concentrate to pick it out. The mouthfeel is medium-heavy - more weighty than you'd expect.

Clynlish 14 is a excellent sipping whisky: a perfect companion for good conversation, a game of cards, or a night reading by the fire. At $50 a bottle in the US, it's not even too dear a dram. Highly recommended.