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 14 year old from the Flora and Fauna range. The Flora and Fauna range was introduced in 1991 and followed in the footsteps of the Classic Malts range, which was introduced in 1988 and featured six single malts deemed to be the most iconic. Flora and Fauna offers a wider range of distilleries in the United Distillers group, with 22 single malts in total, including some less well-known malts that were generally reserved for the group’’s blends. The range owes its name to the famous whisky specialist Michael Jackson and refers to the labels depicting animals and wildlife. These bottlings have become difficult to find and many are simply no longer sold. After replacing Gordon & MacPhail’’s licensed bottlings of Clynelish 12 Year Old in 1984, this edition was discontinued in 2002 when Diageo relaunched the Clynelish brand in the Hidden Malts range.