Clynelish 1974 Signatory Dumpy [Review #1000!]

Hi everyone,

Here we are, the big four digits at last!

It has been a long road but I can’t say it’s been a hard one. I still love tasting whisky, making notes and sharing my thoughts. What is there more to say than that?

 

This was the other whisky I tasted in Feathers Pub in Toronto. I knew to taste this because u/TOModera had done notes on this one and said that he thought it was a Brora. I planned to taste the Lord of the Isles Ardbeg after this but decided not to. I’d found what I was looking for.

Clynelish 1974 Signatory Dumpy 55.7%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Immediately stunning. A shit tonne of amazing complexity, balance and power! Oils for days, waxy with pine smoke, Lapsang Souchong, burnt wood, lemon sherbet, a little BBQ pit. Liquorice and an incredibly good medicinal edge that cuts through, white pepper, bandages, nice chilli heat, some white florals coming in now with minerality. More calpol and earthy notes coming through after a bit. Could literally just sit here and smell it for hours.

Water: Darker, brooding and more earthy, burnt florals, singed heather, leather and dark chocolate.

Taste: Clean arrival, pure lemon, some oak, white pepper then kicks up several notches into transendant territory with big medicinal peat perfectly balanced by the clean lemon and minerals. So damn good. Ridiculously oily and satisfying. Super drinkable.

Water: Softer and rounder and darker. More malty, more oily and waxy, so balanced it almost hurts!, incredible mouthfeel, not as dry, heather. Still powerful. Pine smoke.

Finish: Long length. Arrrgh! Fucking hell its amazing! Really makes the dram. Quite dry with white pepper and minerality, late earthy note but clean finish. Earthy leather and some malt.

Bottled 2001 at 27yo. No WAY this was distilled at Clynelish! A freight train of a whisky with everything I look for. Really sings!

My scoring has been brought up again and again by folks that don’t quite understand my harsher lower scores. But when you come across really, really good whisky you just know it, you can’t help it. Truly exceptional whisky hits you in the face and goes to something right at the core of you.

93/100

A big thank you to everyone that reads these reviews! I started on Reddit and I still love the amazing community that we’ve created here. Being in the whisky industry has allowed my to try some amazing stuff and, though it sometimes comes with complications, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I still remember a time, not long ago at all, when I was little more than tour guide that enjoyed whisky and wanted to try more. I would never have dreamed that I would taste 1000 whiskies, let alone the ones that I have. I feel extremely lucky every single day.

Cheers!

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #835

Whisky Network Review #1000

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Linlithgow 1974 Silver Seal Review

Hi everyone,

A very special whisky here as the last whisky I tried as part of my shenanigans at festivals last year. (spoiler alert) It’s also the completion of my 90 club list on my blog.

So St. Magdalene distillery in the village of Linlithgow is one of those hyped lowland distilleries, probably on par with Rosebank. Some releases were under St. Magdalene, some Linlithgow. The stuff was the same. Triple distilled and worm tub condensed, same as Rosebank as far as I can tell.

That makes for a completely unique style that isn’t made at all anymore, since both are now closed (St. Magdalene is now flats). Official bottlings are scarce, along with any other bottlings making this stuff pretty hard to find too. But I spotted some at a stall in Inter. Whisky Frankfurt and it happened to be: 1. Not too expensive and 2. That golden age/strength that seems to generate 90’s scores.

 

Linlithgow 1974 Silver Seal 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Lovely and perfumed nose, malty, floral complexity, fizzy lemon sweets, classy old school oak, oily and waxy, old Balvenie-esque class, honey.

Taste: Great arrival, very soft then builds and builds, amazing development, lemon, zesty, slightly fizzy, wax, old oak and chocolate, malty, beeswax, clean laundry, petals and unexpected medicinal clean bandages!

Finish: Long length. Quite soft here but whispers of flavour continue and continue. Malt in particular and soft chocolate.

Over 27 years old, bottled in 2001. Best Lowland I've tried so far. By a very long way. So subtle and yet so classy. Quite a unique one, especially in the mid-palate with those clean bandages. Really didn’t expect that. Great stuff would be an understatement.

90/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #563

Whisky Network Review #667

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Cambus 27 TBWC Review [The Grand Old Duke of York]

Hi everyone,

After Paris, London and Rome, of course I had to be sent somewhere a little less exotic before I get used to it! So it was off to York for The Whisky Lounge there. I didn’t get to try too many things but what I did try was rare, cool stuff I really wanted to try.

So, first up was this older single grain whisky from the closed Cambus distillery. It closed down in 1993 as Diageo was consolidating their grain distilleries. Recently though, it’s become a centre for Diageo activities with a cooperage and warehousing.

 

Cambus 27 TBWC 48.3%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Lovely vanilla, cream soda, slightly fizzy, floral oak.

Taste: Vanilla complex, vanilla pod, liquorice, some floral oak, again slightly fizzy.

Finish: Long length. More vanilla and cream, drying with more oak here.

My favourite grain I’ve tried so far.

79/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #490

Single Grain Review #9

Whisky Network Review #566

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Islay Blended Malt 27yo, That Boutique-y Whisky Co. Review

Hello gents and ladies,

A recent release here from That Boutique-y Whisky Co. bringing together some Islay malts and revealing the percentages. Great stuff.

55% Bowmore, 40% Laphroaig and 5% Caol Ila. Only 88 bottles.

French Whore Perfume for the win! Was the slogan on the bottle.

Islay Blended Malt 27yo TBWC 47.3%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Image courtesy of Master of Malt

Nose: Hmmm, definitely perfumed. Builds on you, slowly revealing layers of flavour. Softly floral, lilac, chamomile, scented candles, sweet orange, grapefruit cocktail, green grape, spiced apple, spearmint (quite cooling), there's a peat fire further away, cold peat kiln. Gives you a sense of an abandoned cold warehouse.

Water: Fruitier and maybe more straightforward. Chewy orange, marzipan, Caol Ila's lemon, Bowmore's maltiness, Laphroaig's bandages.

Taste: Soft, very very sooty arrival, charcoal, cold put out fire, lots of ash, an orange slice covered in ash, grapefruit, malty, a little lemon, a small floral note, scented candle, waxy, spearmint, building spice and a puff of peat smoke into the finish.

Water: Sooty, cold, empty warehouse, blackened walls, ash, burnt Hessian, burnt down abandoned building, a burnt down flower museum?! Some oak going into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Softly fruity, the smoke fades. Orange and grapefruit. Longer and sootier with water.

An arsonist's whisky! A bit different but excellent stuff.

86/100

I've got the 23yo on the way, which is 60% Ardbeg. Can't wait!

Review #99

Network Average: 76.3

Best Score: 91

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent