This Clynelish Distillery Exclusive has been on sale in the visitor centre since 2008 and is now finally sold out. This bottle has been for sale for 10 years, which is quite a long run for 7,000 bottles. Something that has been available for so long I do not consider to be a huge hit.
So why didn’t this whisky sell so well. It’s not that the distillery is so badly visited. According to this article from Diageo, the distillery had 8,544 visitors last year. Ok, this was a rise of over 127% from the 3,771 visitos the previous year, but even then 10 years is a long time. This leaves me with 2 other options. Could it be that this Clynelish was so bad or was it simply too expensive? Let’s find out, shall we?
This Clynelish has matured in ex-bourbon casks, it has no age statement and is bottled at 57,5% ABV.
Clynelish Distillery Exclusive tasting notes:
Nose: Sweet citrus, some icing sugar, hay and a mineral note. Apples. A bit of orange peel and a faint hint of wax in the background. More like candlewax.
Taste: Sweet icing sugar, some vanilla, and some wax. Apples. There are some citrus-like aspects but these are all covered in something sweet. Somewhat salty and peppery too. A rather thick mouthfeel.
Finish: The finish is mid-long, with hints of vanilla, barley, lemon and a little bit of waxiness.
I have tasted this before and it seems that it has improved a bit. I’m not sure how long this bottle has been open (I took home a sample from the distillery), but the bottle was already pretty empty. So maybe that contributed to the improvement. It doesn’t take away, however, that it is a fairly mediocre Clynelish. In my opinion the price (£80) is too high for what you get. Too bad, because when I buy a Distillery Exclusive I want to buy something special. Perhaps that all this together is also the reason why this Clynelish didn’t sell very well. And I hope the new Distillery Exclusive has more to offer.
I bought a couple of bottles of this in 2009 when on my way to Orkney. Back then the price was just £40 and I’m betting the price increase over the years has put off a lot of people… same as with the Caol Ila Distillery Only from 2007 – that was also still available there when I visited Islay last in 2016… again at a highly inflated price (£100) as opposed to £45 in 2007 when I fist bough a couple
That could indeed have played a role too. That is quite a price increase!