Review by: zSolaris

Scotch Whisky Review #339: Single Malts of Scotland Clynelish 10 Year (2010)

Distillery: Clynelish.

Bottler: Elixir Distillers.

Region: Highland.

Age: 10 Year. Distilled January 29th, 2010. Bottled July 22nd, 2020.

ABV: 57.4% (Cask Strength?).

Cask Number: 700051.

Price: $130.

Color: 0.5, Yellow Gold. Non-Chill Filtered and Natural Color.

This is the 4th installment of this years’ Christmas Countdown. You can see the 2020 edition here and 2019 edition here.

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Nose: Bright and quite fruity. There’s tons and tons of lemon here along with some passionfruit and pineapple. Every so often a waft of vanilla comes through.

Palate: It is a touch warm at full strength. Sugary lemons are what comes through the strongest along with passionfruit. The main note, though, is of vanilla wafers (which reminds me I haven’t had Nilla in forever). With water, what little complexity this had goes out the window. It just become liquefied vanilla wafers. No wax to be seen anywhere though.

Finish: Way too short. Vanilla, sugar, gone.

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Conclusion: Independent bottlings don’t seem to make their way to Nebraska very often these days and when they do, they are quite pricey since the only store to really carry them is one that marks everything up something awful. I picked up this Clynelish partially because I was curious, partially because I’ve been on a Clynelish kick, and partially because I wanted to do my part in encouraging the local market to get more IBs. Unfortunately, this gamble landed on an absolute dud. The first pours out of this I had with /u/KissMeElon and we both weren’t too impressed with it. Three months later, I’ve revisited the bottle and it’s just okay. The fruits in the nose are great and the vanilla wafer note is tasty but this lacks complexity and somehow misses out on the Clynelish waxiness. Shame, maybe in another three months it’ll have gotten better, but it seems to be that this one might be reserved for whisky highballs come the summer.

Final Score: 74.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.