Clynelish Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1872 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

Remote was its provenance this whisky smells of sea spray, floral blossom heather and bothy socks. Citrus clear in here too with the refreshing joy of half-time oranges, lemon, pinapple, Hawaiian pizzas and orange oil. We're drinking tequila, right? Or is that nail varnish remover, shoe polish and espresso machine cleaner? Time to do the unwashed dishes, after all of that.

The ocean is here with salty sea rock and sour mash by the sea. I think we must be glamping! We've got dates and mature cheese, over-flambéed Christmas pudding and no less than three different honeys. Burnt oaks comes in too along with varnish, cardamom, lemon, deep heat and sour fruit salads - this camping's a little surreal.

It's all getting a bit much at the end, it's like we're dribbling between the penalty spot and the 6 yard line with a half remembered sticky toffee pudding and another Alex Salmond speech emanating from the gullet. The pitch is ploughed, the javelin throw has failed and we've been rugby tackled by a mint rocket gargling chilli water and vacant peat. Emergency stop please.

~£34 (70cl)

Master of Malt - Clynelish Signatory 1998 13yo   |   http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/clynelis
Wikipedia: Clynelish distillery   |   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clynelish_distil

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

79 / 100