04/09/2023 Clydeside

Clydeside 34mo (unknown ABV, Cask Sample, 1y ex-Sherry Cask + 22m ex-Bourbon Cask): nose: as usual with the output of this distillery, the depth is incredible, considering the age. Teak furniture, liqueur cabinets, nut oils, then warm toffee and gooey sticky toffee pudding. We have older, darker woods too (although I am struggling to identify which types, a wooden coppa dell'amicizia comes to mind), drier, dustier, more weathered by time and successive layers of varnish. Caramel, more toffee, and slightly-too-baked crusty cake join a discreet dash of nail lacquer. Lastly, a whiff of rancio augments the picture. The second nose is fruitier, with dried peaches and apricot skins turned chewy. Toffee is never too far, though it is now older, chewy, and less sweet. Mouth: acidic-and-a-half, stripping, we have hot, liquid toffee, with the texture of lime juice attacking the enamel of the teeth. Time on the tongue turns the palate into boiling caramel (toning down the acidity, somewhat), and an unexpected chalkiness complements the acidic sweetness. The second sip is more approachable, mixing chewy dried apple slices with toffee, or caramel coulis. It is still warm, and now gently winy, as if PX had been sprayed onto those dried apple chunks. Finish: it is certainly warming! Not chilli-hot, but hot in a heated-metal fashion -- and it has a slight metallic bitterness too. Oxidised metal, half covered in bone-dry lichen, olive pits, devoid of fleshy tatters, and ground into a powder. The second sip feels more traditional, with a bolder-than-expected Sherry influence (which is to say it is sweet as a fortified wine), caramel stuck to a bare-metal pan (a camping tin pan from the 1980s, to be precise, before they started coating them in Teflon), and a lingering impression of heated fortified wine: hot, syrupy, and sweet, with a pinch of earth for good measure. Behind all that, butterscotch will reward the attentive taster. The mouth is left as if full of gravel upon which moss or algae are starting to grow. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, DH)