North Sea Whisky

These old vintages are getting rarer and rarer, and when they do get bottled, you can either get one or buy a medium-sized hatchback.

Thankfully the Thompson brothers split this old Clynelish into samples as a celebratory breakeven bottling. Hence we get to try it, but still keep our organs off the black market. Let’s see…

Clynelish 47, 1977 (Gordon & Macphail)

Rating: 93 points

Nose: Initial impressions are that it’s voluminous for its age, with soft animalic phenols. There’s a little menthol and no bitter wood. Great! Let’s give it at least a half hour to open up…

Opens up nicely, showing soft wax and the lovely freshness of lemon and spring florals. Except for the citrus, the fruits are in the background. Subtle old-school tropical notes of passion fruit and guava, but mostly lemon and banana – it’s a good hefeweizen distilled.

A single drop of water releases, more wax, honey, pine needles. Bakery notes of crusty sourdough and hot cross buns. Still those spring florals from before, and green apple blossoms. Slowly, the passion fruit gets stronger and stronger.

Palate: Boom! Immediate old-style impact. Big barley, lots of wax, musky, earthy. Mouthfilling texture, with beautifully tart citrus and tropical fruits running through the thing. Incredible. Develops for a long time, with the barley and fruit drying out into waxes, minerals and chalk. Intensely salty. 

Finishes a little grippy, but very well-behaved for almost 50 years in wood. We’re left with lots of elegant oak and plenty of soft, sooty phenols. Big flakes of sea salt melting on your tongue for several minutes. Plasticine on the retrohale. It’s soft and subtle, but stays with you for a long time.

Conclusion: A bit of a slow burner. As you’d expect, the nose takes a good hour to open up, but even then it doesn’t do the palate and the finish justice. The nose feels more cask-driven, whereas the palate explodes with old-style malty and peaty impressions. I was especially blown away by the powerful salty aspect, which carries on for several minutes. 

A dignified old Highlander. It’s a thoroughbred old-style whisky where it counts. Excellent balance after all these years – very special. Well done, G&M!