Nose: Orchard fruit (apple, pear), oatmeal biscuits, dark honey, vanilla, freshly-sawn wood. Adding water greatly softened the nose, particularly the woody aroma which retreated into the background. Over time cherry nougat appeared. Palate: The arrival showed fruit pie, freshly baked brioche, peach jelly and white grape juice. It was semi-sweet but with a grippy edge and there was some sharp baking spice. As it developed the profile relaxed into a sweeter form but it was the addition of water that made the biggest difference. Reducing this to somewhere in the mid 40% range made it suddenly blossom and unfurl. Water also improved the texture which was OK when neat but gained creaminess with dilution. Finish: Medium. Mildly spicy ginger cookies and fruit flan. Clydeside Distillery was founded in 2016 and production began the following year. It is owned by Morrison Glasgow Distillers Ltd. which is associated with the independent bottler Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers (but the two are separate companies). The distillery is located in the Pump House, a refurbished historic building next to the river Clyde. Their first whisky was issued in 2021 and they now have several expressions in the core range. The distillery has an interesting visitor centre that highlights the history of Glasgow and industry on the Clyde, and they offer a range of tours. There is always a cask in the visitor centre shop from which you can hand-fill a bottle. The cask type changes periodically and when we visited it was a bourbon barrel that had been the sole aging vessel for the contained spirit. It was filled on 12 March 2020 and so was holding whisky that was just on 5 years old. It was an interesting experience to taste because it was very similar in profile to the 3 year old “bourbon cask” expression that we had been poured at the post-tour tasting (see review here on Distiller). However this single-cask whisky was at cask strength and almost twice the age, so it showed much more intensity of character. Tasted at Clydeside Distillery, 22nd April 2025 “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)