Tasting notes by Serge Valentin (Whiskyfun.com): 90 points

From first fill bourbon American oak. Previewed it in August – loved it. Who said unsurprisingly?

Colour: straw/white wine.

Nose: typically Clynelish, but with an added layer of sweet oak and vanilla at very first sniffs. Maybe pencil shavings as well. Having said that and as often, your nostrils are quick to get used to those big sweet notes and all the finer details do appear, here all things flinty, waxy and fruity (white garden fruits, apples, pears – although it’s not pearish at all i.e. youngish). So far, it may well be one of the best ciders out there ;-). With water: all the sweet, very fruity and rather vanilled notes disappeared and it’s now a superbly austere and flinty Clynelish, with maybe only faint whiffs of roses and maybe lilies of the valley in the background, which makes it surprisingly delicate and even… feminine! Viva water!

Mouth (neat): oily mouth feel, with big limes, big wax, big bitter oranges and kumquats and… quite some ginger, nutmeg and vanilla from some active oak. The oak makes it rather sweeter than other young Clynelishes. There’re also a few jelly babies wandering around (any colours, really). With water: very interesting that some Managers would have chosen this cask. With water, it became wonderfully mono, or maybe bi-dimensional, which may not be as strange as it sounds. Tinned fruits galore!

Finish: long, clean, still narrow but beautifully fruity. Ripe pears in the aftertaste.

Comments: again, it’s interesting that some Distillery Managers would select such a cask. It’s big, it’s simple, but it’s perfect.