Back to a sherry cask to close out this week of reviews of whiskies from highlands distilleries, and also to close out the month. We’ll go a bit further north than Tomatin, to Clynelish. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a sherry cask Clynelish; my last three reviews were all of bourbon casks of one kind or the other (here, here and here). Well, the label on this bottle does not specify the cask type but it was very clearly a sherry cask. It was distilled in 1996 and bottled in 2015 by Jack Wieber’s Whisky World in Germany (and it’s been even longer since I reviewed a Jack Wieber release). The “Prenzlow Portfolio” part of the name refers to the label painted by the artist, Alfred Prenzlow. I assume there were other Jack Wieber bottlings in this series with labels created by Alfred Prenzlow but I have not come across them. This is another of many bottles that I purchased almost 10 years ago but for some reason never got around to opening. Well, I finally opened it over the weekend. Here now are my notes.

Clynelish 1996-2015, Prenzlow Portfolio (54.4%; Jack Wieber; from my own bottle)

Nose: Dried orange peel, damp, smouldering leaves, damp oak. As it sits there’s a fair bit of salt and a touch of savoury gunpowder. The gunpowder recedes with time and some cereals emerge along with some butterscotch. A few drops of water push the damp leaves and oak back and pull out more of the gunpowder/rock salt.

Palate: Comes in with the orange in the lead—juicier and sweeter here. The leaves and oak emerge as I swallow. Very approachable at full strength; rich texture. Continues in this general vein with nothing new emerging. With more time the orange and the leafy-oaky complex come into balance as the savoury gunpowder (rock salt) emerges earlier. Let’s see what water does for it. Hmmm it makes it sharper and more tannic.

Finish: Long. The savoury gunpowder emerges here and it’s a bit sharper than on the nose; brine follows. The damp leaves have the last word. Not much change here with water.

Comments: As so often happens with sherry cask Clynelish—and I’m assuming this was not a refill cask—it’s the leafy, organic notes that dominate. I quite liked it on the nose but the palate and finish didn’t interest me very much. I’ll be interested to see how this comes on with air in the bottle.

Rating: 85 points.