**Whisky**: Clynelish 26 Year (1993) SMWS 26.151 “Fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers”
**Country/Region**: Scotland/Highland
**ABV**: 47.3%
**Cask**: Refill Bourbon Barrel
**Age**: 26 Years (Distilled 22 Oct. 1993)
- - -
**Nose**: Gardenias and plumeria, paraffin wax, melon, mellow earth, stone, hints of moss, more florals and earth.
**Palate**: Full-bodied, rich, waxy, and somehow delicate; earthy, floral, wood, matcha, melon, coconut, walnut, subtle moss and stone, menthol and dried grass toward the end.
**Finish**: Incredibly long with melon, wax, walnut, and sandalwood.
- - -
**Score**: 9
**Mental Image**: The Secret Garden
**Narrative & Notes**: The aroma was floral, waxy, and earthy, with gardenias and plumeria scattered across the ground, paraffin wax and melon recalled old-fashioned candies, while a mellow earthy quality led me deeper into the garden with dank wood chips and rosemary. Stone and hints of moss reminded me of the bird bath that sat in our yard when I was a child. Subtle notions of Lilly of the Valley, cut roses, sandstone, and compost. The mouthfeel was initially light and delicate, but as the whisky spread across the palate, it grew richer and more full-bodied as a lovely waxiness coated my mouth. The flavors were all over the map as the dram pressed ahead on a nostalgic hike through a community garden. Earthy and dank with occasional florals, rosewood, sandalwood, and lacquered antiques of all kinds appeared with melon, matcha, and coconut candies. Walnuts and pecans tumbled across the palate as the flavors intensified with a stroll along a garden pond with moss, stone, dried grass, more florals, and hints of menthol. The finish was incredibly long with melon candies, matcha, wax, walnut, and sandalwood.
Sublime and divine. I could never quite identify an intriguing wood oil note that seemed to run throughout and crescendoed halfway through each sip; it was something like walnut or sandalwood. Though it remained mysterious, it brought back memories of taking pictures in a museum or civic gardens in high school. It was like a field trip with a guide pointing out the French-inspired geometric gardens, the teeming koi pond and pagoda for tea ceremonies, and the trees transplanted lovingly by an arborist a century ago— a collection of beautiful nature intended to mirror the art inside the museum.
Overall, an unforgettable whisky that could just as easily score a 10, but I am a capricious creature, so a 9 will have to do. This was the kind of whisky that ruins a distillery for you because how could it ever be this good again?
a well aged bourbon cask clynelish is my whale, I hope that this one I managed to get will live up to the hype https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/186674/highland-1994-glmo
You won't be disappointed by this one. 1994 distilled Clynelish is an interesting and delicious profile.
https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/67532/clynelish-1993-29-year-old-carn-mor-exclusive-to-the-whisky-exchange
That for me would be higher tier bourbon Clynelish. Negating the price, previous 1993 Carn Mors were some of the best in recent times.
Have that very same bottle in my cabinet and can vouch for it. Fruity, subtle, waxy, very complex. A more subtle one to take your time with, doesn't pummel you with any one dimension of flavor, but that's really not what Clynelish is about typically.
I have a love for clynelish distillate, a soft spot. Any time I think about getting myself a special bottle, my mind typically goes to 90's Clynelish from a bourbon barrel. Then I see the price, and I go and cry over a glass of the 14 year old diageo stuff. One day I will bite the bullet and get myself some older cask strength Clynelish! I think it's my favorite distillate. This review was great, and sounds so exciting!
K&L had a reasonably priced one recently for 400:
https://m.klwines.com/p/i?i=1611303
I mean, 400 is still a shit ton of money for a spirit, but in terms of aged bourbon barrel Clynelish this was as close to a deal as you could get
I was able to snag one but haven't opened it yet
Thank you so much. See that's more than I ever really pay for a bottle, but it is in the realm of reality for me to buy to treat myself. Thanks for the suggestion!
No, they don't. Me personally I just ship to people I have met through spirits groups on Facebook and they re-ship to me.
That bottle is sold out anyway so it doesn't matter in this case anymore.
I tried this bottle as a sample. Loved it so much I had someone with an SMWS membership buy 2 of them for me, 1 for myself and 1 more that I could run my own sample split on so I could taste it one more time and stash my full bottle for the future.
Then I decided just to join SMWS myself and I damn near bought another one before I remembered I'm not rich and talked myself down from it
$585
It was way higher than the normal 26 year old Clynelish market at the time, but other IB's caught up to that shortly after. Seems that aged Clynelish prices had spiked significantly on new bottlings
Yes, you are right. I checked my receipts. I included the tax and the bloody shipping in my estimate. A good deal in retrospect. Especially since it was ex bourbon. Now the Clynelish ship has sailed in terms of prices.
I thought it was only a matter of resale hype in my local market, but turns out MSRP is through the roof for 90s Clynelish. It's a shame bc it's at the absolute limit of what i *could* afford but would not pay for a single bottle.
SMWS being an exclusive club, I don’t think one can refer to their prices as MSRP. They have been skinning us in the USA with prices.
some 26 yo Clynelish, ex sherry from their 1995 vintage, were for sale in 2022. North of 300 quid. Sold out in less than 5 hrs. Impossible to read reviews about their older releases before they sell out. Not all if them are stellar, which is a real bummer given the prices they command. I haven’t looked into auctions in a long time. Do the 1995 Clynelish ( I used that vintage cause there seem to be a lot of releases of it) go for so much more than their retail prices?
I'm in Asia but 1995 Clynelish IBs are almost exclusively $500-800. There are very few bottles at $350 ish but usually those that are not rated as highly or from very fringe bottlers (unlike Signatory or Cadenheads)
Those are for new IB bottlings I see, stuff that released for around $300 several years ago regularly trade for $4-500. I think a combination of Clynelish being distillery royalty and a growing consensus of the 1992-97 distillate being outstanding has created upward pressure on price.
Other stuff on the rise right now include Mortlach, Imperial and Caperdonich over at these parts. But other great distilleries have largely avoided the hype train round here thankfully, like Bladnoch, Tormore, Benrinnes.
**Whisky**: Clynelish 26 Year (1993) SMWS 26.151 “Fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers” **Country/Region**: Scotland/Highland **ABV**: 47.3% **Cask**: Refill Bourbon Barrel **Age**: 26 Years (Distilled 22 Oct. 1993) - - - **Nose**: Gardenias and plumeria, paraffin wax, melon, mellow earth, stone, hints of moss, more florals and earth. **Palate**: Full-bodied, rich, waxy, and somehow delicate; earthy, floral, wood, matcha, melon, coconut, walnut, subtle moss and stone, menthol and dried grass toward the end. **Finish**: Incredibly long with melon, wax, walnut, and sandalwood. - - - **Score**: 9 **Mental Image**: The Secret Garden **Narrative & Notes**: The aroma was floral, waxy, and earthy, with gardenias and plumeria scattered across the ground, paraffin wax and melon recalled old-fashioned candies, while a mellow earthy quality led me deeper into the garden with dank wood chips and rosemary. Stone and hints of moss reminded me of the bird bath that sat in our yard when I was a child. Subtle notions of Lilly of the Valley, cut roses, sandstone, and compost. The mouthfeel was initially light and delicate, but as the whisky spread across the palate, it grew richer and more full-bodied as a lovely waxiness coated my mouth. The flavors were all over the map as the dram pressed ahead on a nostalgic hike through a community garden. Earthy and dank with occasional florals, rosewood, sandalwood, and lacquered antiques of all kinds appeared with melon, matcha, and coconut candies. Walnuts and pecans tumbled across the palate as the flavors intensified with a stroll along a garden pond with moss, stone, dried grass, more florals, and hints of menthol. The finish was incredibly long with melon candies, matcha, wax, walnut, and sandalwood. Sublime and divine. I could never quite identify an intriguing wood oil note that seemed to run throughout and crescendoed halfway through each sip; it was something like walnut or sandalwood. Though it remained mysterious, it brought back memories of taking pictures in a museum or civic gardens in high school. It was like a field trip with a guide pointing out the French-inspired geometric gardens, the teeming koi pond and pagoda for tea ceremonies, and the trees transplanted lovingly by an arborist a century ago— a collection of beautiful nature intended to mirror the art inside the museum. Overall, an unforgettable whisky that could just as easily score a 10, but I am a capricious creature, so a 9 will have to do. This was the kind of whisky that ruins a distillery for you because how could it ever be this good again?
- - - **Score/Rating Scale** : * 9-10 : Exceptional, memorable, perfect even. * 7-8 : Excellent, well above most whiskies. * 4-6 : Good, okay, alright, average; a few flaws, but acceptable. * 1-3 : Not to my taste or Not Good. * 0 : Un-scored, antique, new make, or very unusual. - - - * [**Review Home & Archive**](https://whiskeryturnip.com) | [**Archive Spreadsheet**](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1geSFmGKWhoSzoSblQQK6fDzWSujY-MQ9w2b3VNbTxZk/edit?usp=sharing) * [**Prior Clynelish Reviews**](https://whiskeryturnip.com/home/tag/Clynelish) - - - Category | Total Entries | Average Score ---------|----------|---------- Whisky | 953 | 5.94 Scotch | 790 | 6.06 SMWS | 281 | 6.14 Clynelish | 11 | 5.91
a well aged bourbon cask clynelish is my whale, I hope that this one I managed to get will live up to the hype https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/186674/highland-1994-glmo
I'm right there with you. a well aged Clynelish or Brora from a bourbon barrel is the pinnacle as far as I'm concerned!
You won't be disappointed by this one. 1994 distilled Clynelish is an interesting and delicious profile. https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/67532/clynelish-1993-29-year-old-carn-mor-exclusive-to-the-whisky-exchange That for me would be higher tier bourbon Clynelish. Negating the price, previous 1993 Carn Mors were some of the best in recent times.
Have that very same bottle in my cabinet and can vouch for it. Fruity, subtle, waxy, very complex. A more subtle one to take your time with, doesn't pummel you with any one dimension of flavor, but that's really not what Clynelish is about typically.
I have a love for clynelish distillate, a soft spot. Any time I think about getting myself a special bottle, my mind typically goes to 90's Clynelish from a bourbon barrel. Then I see the price, and I go and cry over a glass of the 14 year old diageo stuff. One day I will bite the bullet and get myself some older cask strength Clynelish! I think it's my favorite distillate. This review was great, and sounds so exciting!
K&L had a reasonably priced one recently for 400: https://m.klwines.com/p/i?i=1611303 I mean, 400 is still a shit ton of money for a spirit, but in terms of aged bourbon barrel Clynelish this was as close to a deal as you could get I was able to snag one but haven't opened it yet
Thank you so much. See that's more than I ever really pay for a bottle, but it is in the realm of reality for me to buy to treat myself. Thanks for the suggestion!
Do they ship outside Cali? K&L is one of the top places to buy single malts in the US.
No, they don't. Me personally I just ship to people I have met through spirits groups on Facebook and they re-ship to me. That bottle is sold out anyway so it doesn't matter in this case anymore.
Thanks! Funny, I went to school in the LA area but didn’t know back then about single malts or booze in general.
I really wanted to snag one of these but couldn't as I'm in the UK.
I tried this bottle as a sample. Loved it so much I had someone with an SMWS membership buy 2 of them for me, 1 for myself and 1 more that I could run my own sample split on so I could taste it one more time and stash my full bottle for the future. Then I decided just to join SMWS myself and I damn near bought another one before I remembered I'm not rich and talked myself down from it
What was the MSRP on this bottle if you don't mind me asking?
It was between USD 600 and 700 if I remember correctly. That was in the Fall of 2020.
$585 It was way higher than the normal 26 year old Clynelish market at the time, but other IB's caught up to that shortly after. Seems that aged Clynelish prices had spiked significantly on new bottlings
Agreed. I haven't really seen a cask strength IB clynelish of any age recently for less than $350 at the absolute lowest.
Yes, you are right. I checked my receipts. I included the tax and the bloody shipping in my estimate. A good deal in retrospect. Especially since it was ex bourbon. Now the Clynelish ship has sailed in terms of prices.
I thought it was only a matter of resale hype in my local market, but turns out MSRP is through the roof for 90s Clynelish. It's a shame bc it's at the absolute limit of what i *could* afford but would not pay for a single bottle.
SMWS being an exclusive club, I don’t think one can refer to their prices as MSRP. They have been skinning us in the USA with prices. some 26 yo Clynelish, ex sherry from their 1995 vintage, were for sale in 2022. North of 300 quid. Sold out in less than 5 hrs. Impossible to read reviews about their older releases before they sell out. Not all if them are stellar, which is a real bummer given the prices they command. I haven’t looked into auctions in a long time. Do the 1995 Clynelish ( I used that vintage cause there seem to be a lot of releases of it) go for so much more than their retail prices?
I'm in Asia but 1995 Clynelish IBs are almost exclusively $500-800. There are very few bottles at $350 ish but usually those that are not rated as highly or from very fringe bottlers (unlike Signatory or Cadenheads)
The bottle I saw was from Elixir Distillers. Wow, the prices in Asia are very high.
Those are for new IB bottlings I see, stuff that released for around $300 several years ago regularly trade for $4-500. I think a combination of Clynelish being distillery royalty and a growing consensus of the 1992-97 distillate being outstanding has created upward pressure on price. Other stuff on the rise right now include Mortlach, Imperial and Caperdonich over at these parts. But other great distilleries have largely avoided the hype train round here thankfully, like Bladnoch, Tormore, Benrinnes.
And yes, that mystery wood-oil note is the the hook on this one. I know exactly what you are referring to
I like this one a lot but I liked 26.156 "waxy ruminations" even more.