Clynelish 21 1995 Signatory The Whisky Exchange

Thanks to xile_ for this sample.

When it comes to Clynelish, there are two types of people: Those that enjoy them in ex-sherry casks, and those of you who I assume hunt down neighbourhood pets in order to drink their blood.

I kid of course. There are people who love an ex-bourbon Clynelish. I have no issue with them. If anything, they are buying and enjoying whisky I don’t. I just happen to not enjoy them.

But someone out there has tastes like me. Someone who picked a bottle for The Whisky Exchange, and someone else from Signatory. So I’m not alone. Thus someday we may all breed and make more of us, potentially having children who all scream “we are legion” in unison. You know, as a cute child thing, like a Xmas pageant.

Thus we have Clynelish 21 1995 Signatory The Whisky Exchange, which you may have heard about as people have been going ape nuts for it. That’s like apeshit, but a bit higher up and more connected to the ape.

So let’s see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: All out, you’re fucked

Region: Highland

Vintage: 26.09.1995

Bottled: 23.08.2017

Cask Type: Refill Sherry Butt

Cask Number: 8676

Number of bottles: 544

Abv: 54.7%

Colour:10YR 5/8

Nose: Green grape, nectarine, fresh linen, banana muffins

Very fresh nose. Lots of green grape lightness, good linen, and some nectarine. I’m not getting much wax, but as we have talked before, I’m bad at picking up wax.

Water brings out this funky/cereal mix going. Really a different direction from it. I like it.

Taste: Wood wax/orange, cloves, papaya, oatmeal, dry apple, banana

Nice woodiness and that wax is here. Yay, I found it! More cereal, more fruit, a lot less gentle and complex than the nose. It’s almost like it was hinting at this light aspect, and then you try it and they realize they just have an entire fruit bowl (which happens to made out of wood).

Finish: Papaya, white cake, vanilla pudding, inari sushi, cloves, hazelnut

Ah, there we go. Better on the finish. It hits those sweet sides quite a bit, and sadly the acidity is missing from the taste to balance it.

There’s this odd earthy/fruity/funky note too. I don’t find it good.

Conclusion: This is a nice, interesting, but not the greatest of all the ex-sherry Clynelish I’ve had. I can certainly see why it was picked. It’s got a good finish. There are aspects of funk in there that is pretty amazing. The nose really trips you up, and that in and of itself was nice.

I feel like it’s on the cusp of something I’d love everytime. Like the finish needed some acidity, the taste needed to be rounded out, and the nose is a bit light for most without water. All in all this is a good dram and for the price well worth checking out. If… you know, people hadn’t already done so.

84/100

Scotch review #1086, Highland review #183, Whisky review #1692