Three Clynelish

It was time to rinse out a few dozen 175ml airline-sized bottles and decant a variety of winter/spring/summer purchases plus other things under the counter for a while, for the incoming darkness and cold. And lo and behold: there were 3 Clynelish waiting for attention! And three somewhat different, but still otherworldly remarkable Clynelish they were:

Vintage Clynelish 12 single cask not-chill-filtered 43% distilled: 1982 bottled: 1995 ....clear like chenin blanc, smooth like soft kiwi & apricot & pear, long and tropical/florid (but not at all sharp or citrusy) JUST the way fruit should really taste (I don't really like fruit of the grocery store department kind--but I LOVE this!); assertive too; this is like NO other whisky (though the fruitiest Mortlachs come close)--it is a remarkable triumph of graciously arched Romanesque and mini-angelic Roccoco--uniquely enchanting and lush--a Midsummer Night's Dream whisky--not so much in a "class" of its own, as in a "world" of its own (a planet worth visiting anytime);

Hedges & Butler Clynelish 10 43% cask #005897 bottle #072 purchased at Monoprix in Lyon maybe July2003 ....more typically harvest in color it's also tighter; it even has just a hint of nail polish compared to the Vintage--it's got fruit but the fruits are congregating tightly together as if to still present themselves as 'whisky'--it even has a notch of vanilla bourbon just to make you know that whisky is a complicated end-product involving grains, germination, peating, and cask maturation--though ultimately the fruits triumph--dangling a bit tantilizingly from above, with even a little tartness--it's good, though not quite dancing in the faerie woods like the other two; compared to most whiskies on the market it is a happy joy; although in terms of lushness it doesn't compare to the other two, I would still (good word) pluck it up off the shelf anyday!

Signatory Clynelish 17 43% oakwood natural color Distilled: 11.5.83 Bottled: 2.6.2000 Casks 2683&2683 Bottle: 454 or

708 ....as pretty persuasion goes, this one knows how to tease--straw colored and lightly viscous--it has a burst of pungent varnish/fruit intensity at the start that mellows slowly toward apple/pear/nectarine prettiness; quickly it shows itself as the fine, characterful, dram that it is; one that at first hides its loveliness first in the guise of "forest" before dappling into the warmth and invitingness of tropical variety that is its nature.

CONCLUSION: Clynelish is incredible stuff, because the flavors they produce, that all seem "fruity" (in the most wonderful kiwi, apricot, apple, pear sort of ways--which happen to be the fruit flavors that I actually enjoy--and which broaden across the palate in incredibly lush ways) are unlike most anything that are ever present in whisky. The other whiskies I know that have this type of flavor are Mortlach and Old Pulteney (though Mortlach has it in a smokier style and the Old Pult has it in a narrower, more winy, but still fine, style; and I once had a great Miltonduff that also seemed to have this incredible malty/fruity beauty; even an extremely fresh Royal Lochnagar has it in a big ripe style, if I do remember correctly; PLUS I think the popularity of Glenfiddich is also due to suggestions of these qualities, but Glenfiddich is scrambling hard to make people happy, in this regard). These Clynelish samplings are IMOTT (OTT: over the top) opinion like no other "whiskies" available anywhere--and are worth a try!

Reply to
Douglas W. Hoyt
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Interesting tasting notes, thanks. I'm curious to know if you've tried Longmorn? It's one of my favourite speysiders, mainly because of that fruit/zesty style, so Clynelish sounds like it's worth a purchase :-)

Reply to
Andrew Fenton

I'm going on long fuzzy memories. I picked up my first Longmorn in 1982 in Hamburg at Slim McCowell's, and back then it was dark brown and incredibly rich--it was probably highly sherried. In the mid-to-late 1980's I got a Longmorn 23-year-old Gordon & McPhail bottling that was absolutely bizarre--it has more extreme flavors than any whisky I've since purchased--and it was probably due to spending 23 years in a fresh bourbon cask (I got it for about $14 after a local merchant put all their G&McPhail whiskies at half price, and then the check-out clerk charged me the same as the price of the cheapest whisky for the entire lot!)--this age-monster twisted your palate around in strange contortions--it was an unusual whisky product, not just a typical Longmorn. I then picked up another Longmorn in Hamburg in the early 1990's and was disappointed--it was much slighter than the 1982 purchase. My last Longmorn was a 50% version that I got in San Diego in the mid-1990's, and it was a very nice dram, with delicate fruity/malty richness. But I think that a Clynelish will be brighter and far more kiwi/pear/apricot-fruity than a Longmorn. Though Longmorn is nice stuff! Both of these are great Highlands (though Clynelish may be technically classified a "Northern", with the distillery very closely located to Glenmorangie).

Reply to
Douglas W. Hoyt

Thanks - I see my local whisky store has Clynelish 14 yr at a discounted price, so I'll pick up a bottle :-)

Reply to
Andrew Fenton

It's one of those few rare whiskies that I'm constantly surprised and delighted by--and find that if I haven't had one for awhile, that it still seems a joy, even when it's a lesser expression of the whisky might be more tight, muted, less-dimensioned, or even flabby (watery) than a really florid one (but it seems that only in 1:1 comparison will the really great ones prove themselves). I guess the short list of those really delightful and unique ones for me would be Clynelish, Mortlach, and Caol Ila. Though Ardbeg probably also falls in the category of: they're all great--but every now and then you get one that's as great as you really remember greatness to be.

I guess Bowmore would be there as well if it didn't constantly seem to keep morphing. Even after FWP, each of my last several Bowmore 12's are distinctly different from one another. The most recent one is desperately light. You have to wave a haggis over it and chant, "Peat! Peat!" in order to start to perceive any unique flavor. Since I keep samples of previous bottles I know it's not taste buds dying out.

Reply to
Douglas W. Hoyt

Perfect choices -- that's my list as well, along with the dearly departed Port Ellen.

-- Larry

Reply to
pltrgyst

I still have an ancient unopened Port Ellen under the sink.

The one that I imagine MIGHT fit too--but which I have never had--is Brora.

Reply to
Douglas W. Hoyt

Massive head cold, for me, means Speyburn on the rocks. But two things have kept me from a stuffy nose (and that nasty jelling over of the olfactory receptors) in the last few years: the first is zinc (gluconate) the dirt-cheap stuff from the corner drug store--15mg to 25mg taken 3 or 4 times a day; the second is Gelomyrtol, which is the top-selling over-the-counter product in German pharmacies--it is essence of the myrtle plant, so it is essentially it is an herbal extract, and it keeps the nasal membranes flowing and vital with 3 or 4 pills a day--I don't think they can sell it in the States, because it makes health claims that they couldn't be arsed to substantiate, since it's an herb that anybody else could easily sell if Pohl-Boskamp were to spend the money to prove its effectiveness--but they are doing fine already. My last extreme sinus-based head-cold hit viciously and unexpectedly two weeks ago, but although it was a red/raw painful experience (you can still feel the virus move from sinus to throat), I only had difficulty tasting whisky for about 3 hours on one evening only, given the regimen. The cough lasted at least a week, but at least the whisky vapors were not obstructed!

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I just hope that distributors up here in cheesehead country pick up on it, and that local distributors continue to sell things like this as a "loss leader", figuring since that the only way to get cheeseheads to buy ANYthing is by keeping the price as close as possible to E&J brandy. High 80's are always promising, but Caol Ila and Clynelish, for me, make even numbers in the '70's usually seem irrelevant.

Reply to
Douglas W. Hoyt

(gluconate)

effectiveness--but

Oh, the frustation! I poured myself a Lagavulin last night and cursed the wheathergods for making another winter happen. I didn't taste anything. Head cold!! Off to Germany I go to get the what's-its-name - gelomyrtol? - against sinus problems. Does that really work? Do they sell it in Holland? I hope not, I need a legitimate reason to drive to Germany to get some good-value bottles of whisky ;-)

Marjon

Reply to
Marjon

You can't get good value near you in Holland? I always stop at Ton Overmars in Amsterdam if I'm nearby.

:For me, gelomyrtol does what it says it does: condition the sinus membranes so that they continue to feel and act healthy and normal even when under attack. And I think the zinc helps too--at least it does for me--the theory was that it inhibits the bonding of rhinoviruses to the sinus membranes--my M.D. said that a recent study has found that zinc may be a placebo, but that's good enough for me! A good combination. I HAVE lost some portion of smell on rare occasion in the last few years, but usually only for a couple hours here or there with really clever viruses.

Reply to
Douglas W. Hoyt

I can't complain, really, though I'm never nearby Amsterdam; I live near the German border. It's a 150 km drive to Ton Overmars. I've had him ship 3 bottles to me twice, for E7,95 shipping costs. That's cheaper than petrol and he does have good prices. But I want to check out the Trinkgut in Kleve, I read that they have a good standard range, but I wouldn't know if that's interesting for me until I go there, do I? Plus there's Versailles, a very good shop in Nijmegen. So actually I'm quite happy!

Marjon

Reply to
Marjon

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