DESCRIPTION

The Rare Malt Selection is a historic selection of single malt whiskies from operational and lost distilleries that were released by Diageo between 1995 and 2005.

Released within the Rare Malt Selection. Distilled in 1972 and bottled as a 22 year old at 58.95%, this is a rare American bottling of Clynelish.

TASTING NOTES (by Whiskyfun.com)

A version for the US, I believe… Colour: white wine. Nose: punchier, less ‘tropical’ at first nosing, more on cake and pastries. Quite some praline and some huge waxy notes emerging after a moment. Really on beehive, paraffin and all sorts of oils (colza, olive…) plus a little incense. It gets then smokier and smokier (white wood smoke) and a little resinous, before… yes, there, the tropical fruits arrive. It’s more sort of ‘skinny’, with rubbed orange zests, bananas, tangerines… Quite some walnut liquor as well. Another more than perfect old new Clynelish that has quite some similarities with the ‘genuine’ old Clynelishes (before they were christened ‘Brora’). Mouth: how punchy and powerful, and how drinkable! Incredible that one can swallow this one just like that, without a single drop of water – or is it me again? It starts on bitter oranges, lots of wax as expected (mastic candies – and the kind of Turkish delights they make using mastic), developing on smoked tea, butterscotch, bergamot, quince jelly… Again it gets smokier, with also more and more tea (notes of old pu-erh), liquorice sticks, hints of Smyrna raisins (I’m sorry, not any other kinds of raisins here)… Maybe it’s getting just a bit too tannic (you can feel it on the back of your tongue) but that’s a detail here. The finish is very long as expected, waxy, orangey and resinous. Just superb – even if I may be a little partial to Clynelish. 93 points (and thanks to the Plowedsters.)

PRODUCT SUMMARY