Scotland, Northern Highlands. Distillery operational. Owner: Diageo

Founded in 1967 on the site of its renowned colleague Clynelish #1 (renamed Brora in 1969), from which it takes its name, Clynelish began production in June 1968. At the cutting edge of technology, it tripled Brora's production capacity. Like Caol Ila, its peaty alter ego from Islay, the majority of its production was at the time fated to be absorbed by the blend Johnnie Walker. It would not be until 1994 that the first official versions would be released in the Rare Malts Selection for its vintage versions with high ABVs (Clynelish 1972, 23 Year Old, 63%), then in the Flora & Fauna range (Clynelish 14 Year Old, 43%), and finally in the Flora & Fauna Cask Strength range launched in 1997, which introduced a 1982 vintage.Niche and rare in the 80s and 90s, Clynelish was brought into the spotlight by independent bottlers (Gordon & MacPhail, Cadenhead, Signatory Vintage) who took the single malt in hand, offering numerous vintage and aged small batch and single cask versions, such as Clynelish 12 Year Old Orange Label Gordon & MacPhail, Clynelish 28 Year old 1971 Signatory Vintage and Clynelish 1972 Cask Strength Cadenhead.

A Clynelish distilled in 1995 and bottled in 2016 by Wemyss Malts. Wemyss Malts was founded in 2005 by William and Isabella Wemyss, descendants of the Wemyss clan from Fife, where the Haig distillery was built in 1840. Isabella selects the malts and William draws on his experience as a blender to create blended malts with the help of experts like Charles Maclean. Every expression has a well-defined identity reflected in names like The Hive, Spice King and Peat Chimney. Today, the business also bottles single malts with lyrical single malts similar to those of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The business is also involved in the Kingsbarn distillery in Fife. A limited edition of 303 bottles.