Clynelish Select Reserve Limited Release 2015 56.1% NV

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Serge Valentin (90)

So, there is this new official Special Release, NAS. Not knowing when to have it, let’s have it now.
Despite it being NAS, I had enjoyed last year’s version quite a lot (WF 88). Now the lovely little book about these SRs states that it’s ‘at least fifteen years’, which virtually makes it a 15 yo, ‘and often far more’. They have used several types of cask – too long to mention – but the colour does not suggest first fill sherry. Colour: pale gold. Nose: there is a little vanillin at first nosing, but no coconut. And then, indeed, a combination of various periods of Clynelish, blended together with care. It’s almost as if you had vatted the BBR and the Wemyss that we just tried. Mangos and passion fruits, all things citrus, wax and paraffin, a drop of honey, some hay and some damp earth, some tobacco, a little menthol yet again… In truth, this nose is beyond reproach. With water: some mud and some seaweed coming out. Mouth (neat): watch it! Starts smooth, so you may want to down a good sip, but it’s very strong! Lemon skin, waxes again, a lot of lemongrass, green tea, a great bitterness (around grapefruits), and more and more salt. A grassy smokiness. With water: becomes sauvignony, like many 1995-1998s are. Or rather, manzanilla-like. Walnuts, a drop of seawater, a touch of mustard. I juts couldn’t be against that. Finish: long, grassier, limy and salty. A great margarita made in Sutherland. Comments: it seems that it’s sharper and better chiselled than last year’s version. Which leads to this fact: I like it even better. Too bad it’s too expensive.