Clynelish 15 Year Old 1997 Chester Whisky

Clynelish 1997 is fast becoming very popular with independent bottlers, it seems. Not that this comes as a surprise. The four previously bottled I tried were all very much to my liking with scores deep in the 80s to just above 90, with the Bonding Dram bottling as my all time favourite (yeah, well, I was part of the selection panel). The expectations are high.

It has a waxy nose with a nice mineral side and fruit in the shape of appels and banana, but also hints of tinned pineapple. Wet grass. Slice of lemon. Farmer butter. Grapefruit and a pinch of salt. It evolves from waxy to pure paraffin and that is no punishment. Good start!

Creamy and round on the palate, but dangerously soft. Goes down like lemonade. Grapefruit, appels and pineapple cubes are joined by cashew nuts and hints of almonds. Tonic. A bit of peat and salt.

The finish is medium to long, bittersweet and drying.

Yep, this is another great Clynelish 1997 that fits in perfectly with those other indies from last year. Very drinkable indeed. Around 75 EUR.

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