Clynelish whisky reviews and tasting notes by WhiskyRant

Clynelish distillery is located near Brora, Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland
It was originally built in 1819 but closed down in 1967 as the new Clynelish distillery was built
The original distillery was reopened in May 1969 and it produced heavily peated whisky to cover a shortage of Islay whisky caused by a drought on the island (Caol Ila distillery was being re-built and lack of their malts had to be compensated)
The reopened old distillery was named Brora distillery and its production of a peated whiskies stopped in 1983, which makes Brora whisky rare and desired nowadays
Clynelish has a strong connection with Johnnie Walker blends – it’s been said that around 95% of the Clynelish spirit is used in Johnnie Walker bottlings
Clynelish is also usually the base of Compass Box blended malts
Region: Highland

April 11, 2017

Compass Box The Lost Blend review

Compass Box The Lost Blend is a continuum to their first blended malt called Eleuthera, released in 2001. First whisky ever by Compass Box was Hedonism by the way, a blended grain whisky which I got a chance to taste in 2016. Eleuthera was a blended malt containing approximately 80% […]

December 28, 2016

Compass Box Flaming Heart 15th Anniversary Whisky review

Celebrating Compass Box’s fifteenth anniversary, the 2015 edition of Flaming Heart is another fine example of top notch blending by John Glaser and his company. Glaser has been named “Innovator of the Year” four times by Whisky Magazine and “Pioneer of the Year” twice by Malt Advocate. He has stated […]

December 13, 2016

Clynelish 14 year old review

Located in Highland region, Clynelish 14 year old single malt whisky comes from a distillery built opposite the nowadays silent Brora distillery. The original, Old Clynelish distillery was built in 1819 but in 1969, changed its name to Brora. Brora made heavily peated whisky in 1969-1973 for blending, covering a shortage of […]

October 2, 2016

Compass Box Enlightenment review

Compass Box Enlightenment was made in the spirit of Compass Box’s Campaign for Scotch Whisky Transparency. You can read the backstory of this campaign from my Spice Tree review – long story short, production of Spice Tree had to be stopped because of Scotch Whisky Association’s ridiculous regulations (Fortunately they […]

October 1, 2016

Compass Box Spice Tree review

Compass Box Spice Tree gained much reputation because of Scotch Whisky Association and its regulations. Making Compass Box Spice Tree “illegal whisky”. I’ll get to that later on but first: some basic information about this vatting of Northern Highland malt whiskies. Clynelish malt is the core of this blended malt […]