Clynelish 18 Year Old 1995 Malts of Scotland for Dram Brothers Luxemburg

The Dram Brothers Whisky Society can often be encountered at festivals in the Benelux. I have run into Patrick and Mike, the twins who run the club, a couple of time. Last time was at the Spirits in the Sky festival in Leuven, Belgium. The regularly have bottlings for their club, sometimes in collaboration with well-known Vinothek Massen. Their latest is this Clynelish 1995, a sherry hogshead from the warehouse of Malts of Scotland in Paderborn.

The nose shows quite a bit of rubber at first, if you ask me. Not so nice. It is so dominant that I have a hard time detecting any fruit. With effort some plums and oranges emerge. Hint of espresso. Beeswax? Oh, wait. The rubber disperses to reveal more sherry. Aniseed. Cough candy. Yes, it recovers nicely. Pineapple on the grill. Candied sugar. New leather. Tiger balm. Thyme. It has a strange herbal side, but it works.

The attack is fairly spicy and mildly oily. Cloves, cinnamon and aniseed again. The fruit is very clear now. Plums, sultanas, Seville oranges. Cold coffee. Whipped cream. Mild salty lining, even. It keeps improving.

The medium long finish on sherry is a bit dry.

Do not be fooled by the initial whiff of rubber. It evaporates quickly to allow a very nice sherried Clynelish.

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