Oh Taste & See: Clynelish 14 Year Old Single Malt Scotch

I've been sitting on this bottle of Clynelish 14 Year Old for a few months, but I'm glad I finally got around to popping it open as it quickly jumped to the top of my list of favorite single malts. It's not a common single malt - I picked up this bottle at a duty-free shop, but if you see it it's worth every penny of the $45-$50 price tag.

Clynelish distillery is owned by Diageo and is billed as a Coastal Highland malt. It is located in the seaside town of Brora, and is across the road from the much older Brora Distillery which is owned by the same company. The vast majority of the whisky produced at Clynelish is used in Johnnie Walker blends, with the 14 Year Old being their most widely available single-malt bottling. It's bottled at 92 proof, and is a lovely example of a well-balanced Scotch fit for any occasion.

Color: Clynelish 14 Year Old is the color of a golden wheat field - quite light and very natural looking, with a bright pop to it.

Nose: This whisky has a delicate but interesting nose with light aromas in the sweet fruit and floral categories. I picked up hints of honey, lavender, apples, and prunes. The most striking thing about it is how well everything is balanced together, creating a very pleasant aroma that pulls you right in for that first sip.

Flavor: The flavors in Clynelish are equally well balanced and it has a nice rich, thick mouth-feel. There are notes of honey, oatmeal, cloves, vanilla, and just a tiny hint of smokiness and leather.

Finish: The finish is full-bodied with oak flavors that fade to pepper and cinnamon, again with just a hint of lingering smoke and leather to keep you warm until the next sip.

Overall, it's a winner!

Oh Taste & See: Pendleton Blended Canadian Whisky

What makes a whisky Canadian? Well I guess if you ask the folks at Hood River Distillers, the Oregon-based bottlers of Pendleton Blended Canadian Whisky, the only requirement is for the liquid in the bottle to have been distilled and aged in Canada. Given how much I like their product, I won't argue with them at all.

Pendleton is named after Oregon's Pendleton Round-Up, one of the worlds longest-running rodeos. The bottle features the Round-Up's bucking bronco logo, and all of the marketing seeks to tie this whisky to the romance and intrigue of cowboys and rodeo culture. In fact a portion of the proceeds from each bottle is donated to the Pendleton Round-Up. That's all great, but it does even more to make this seem like a distinctly American (Oregonian?) whisky, even if the liquid itself was made in Canada and the bottle says Canadian Whisky. Oh well, enough nitpickin' about Pendleton's provenance, how does it drink?

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First Tasmanian Whisky Available in the US

A few months ago I wrote about the growth of whisky production in Australia and specifically on the island of Tasmania. Until now getting your hands on Australian-made whisky in the U.S. has been next to impossible. I tried to have a tiny sample bottle of Aussie whisky sent to me this past summer, and after a few frustrating calls with a customs officer at the Port of L.A., I gave up on jumping through all the hoops necessary to get the bottle to my shelf. I guess they sent it back to Australia, or maybe had a little happy hour at the customs office.

Well now it's easier to taste at least one Tasmanian whisky - actually three different whiskies from Lark Distillery - at least if you live near New York, Chicago, Miami, San Fran, or L.A. You can read more about the first Australian whisky being imported to the U.S. here, and as soon as I get a chance to taste some I'll report back.

G'Day.

Australian Whiskey Innovators

I've been reading up on the Australian whisky scene, and I've found it to be quite interesting so far. In particular, I was interested to read about Wood Aged Holdings a distiller that offers a whisky investment scheme allowing individuals to invest in whiskies while they are being aged. This ingenious idea provides a unique alternative investment for whisky aficionados, as well as helping the distillery to raise the money needed up front before embarking on the long, expensive process of distilling and aging whisky.

I've read about similar schemes in Scotland, but this one seems to be very well put-together, and I think it makes more sense in Australia where there is a lot more risk in aging whisky for 15 years. This risk comes from the fact that it's hard to predict what the market for high-end Australian whiskies will like be that far down the road - there simply isn't as much historical market data to base projections on as there is in Scotland - although Wood Aged Holdings is betting the only direction for Australian whisky sales to go is up. They back up this belief by agreeing to buy back the whisky from investors, at a premium, after it is aged. Allowing individual investors to fund the distillation and aging not only spreads the financial risk, but also gives some indication of how much demand there will be once the product is ready, since we can assume that most of those investing in whisky now will be consumers of 'their' product 15 years down the road.


Another sign of the bright future of Australian whisky comes from the island of Tasmania off Australia's southeastern coast. Most familiar to Americans as the home of the cartoon character Taz (at right, obviously after drinking a bit too much Tasmanian hooch), Tasmania is also home to six whisky distilleries and counting. According to this article, some Tasmanian distillers think it's only a matter of time before their whiskies rise to the top of the whisky world alongside the best products of Scotland. Apparently Tasmania has the perfect climate and conditions for making whisky, and at one time in the 1800's was home to 16 distilleries, so the tradition is there as well.

It seems that most Australian whisky is currently sold in Australia and nearby Asian countries. I haven't seen any Australian whiskies in the U.S., and I don't have plans to travel down under anytime soon, but if you hear of any being sold in the states let me know, I'd love to have a taste to see what all the fuss is about.