Clynelish 1972, Gordon and Macphail Rare Old, Lot #RO/16/07, b.11.28.2016, 42.2% abv.

I believe this 44 year old Clynelish is the oldest Clynelish to date. Composed of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Actually I had this in November 2017, so someone might have released an older Clynelish afterwards, I wouldn't know. I did notice 1972 seems to be a plentiful year for Clynelish, which has an interesting history. I'm not going to go into details here, but basically the original Clynelish distillery was renamed to Brora and a little afterwards a new distillery was built near Brora and named Clynelish. So apparently there were Clynelish A and Clynelish B. Do you know how to pronounce "Clynelish", because I still don't.

Nose: fruits, mostly green grapes, golden apples, middle aged jujubees (dates), many lighter sweet fruit elements.

Palate: strong, wood, strong tofu flavor intensifies with time, earthy tobacco, like dried squid without the salty seafood flavor.

Finish: short, tofu finish, alcohol spice.

Dry glass: wax and apples.

Beautiful nose. Could not tell it was a Clynelish, thought it was a nicer Port Charlotte or stronger Bunna. Nothing about this dram is soft, focused flavors on the tofu and dry tobacco flavors. Very strange as I expected something more. Maybe I'll come to revisit this one day.

Grade: B-

Whiskyfun.com, Serge, sgp:361, 89 points

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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