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 25 year old distilled in 1993. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of friends with a particular passion for whisky. The club selects casks whose bottles are then only available to members. The name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label but each distillery is given a number when the malt is bottled. The first cask selected by the SMWS, for example, was Glenfarclas, and it therefore uses the number 1. The second number refers to the number of bottlings from each distillery. The club was sold to Glenmorangie in 2004 and then to a group of investors in 2016. A limited edition of 175 bottles.