Review #933 - Clydeside Napier
Among the many new distilleries opening in Scotland over the past 20 years, there's been a strong concentration of them in the Lowlands region. At one point, there were supposedly over a 100 distilleries operating in the region; by the year 2000, that was reduced to just 3, and one of those remaining distilleries (Bladnoch) was actually mothballed at that time. Since then, though, the number of distilleries operating in the area has gone back up to more than 20.
One of these new wave distilleries is the Glasgow-based Clydeside; when it opened in late 2017, it became the second operational single malt distillery within the city in about 100 years (after Glasgow distillery opened about 3 years earlier). This distillery has embraced the more delicate Lowland style of malt whisky, and they focus on first fill bourbon casks, sherry casks, and STR (shaved, toasted, recharred) casks. These more active cask styles allow the brand to target releases at a younger age without as much of the characteristic youth notes that we often see in single digit age stated whisky.
This Napier bottling, which arrived in 2024, is the distillery's attempt at an Oloroso sherry matured whisky. It's a full sherry maturation, and they bottle the single malt at the enthusiast-driven strength of 46% ABV.
Clydeside Napier
Scotland/Lowland - Single Malt
Price: USD 70 (2026)
Age Statement: 6 Years
Strength: 46% ABV
Cask Makeup: Oloroso sherry casks
Details: Not chill filtered; bottled 2024
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 2 months; bottles at 90%, 80%, and 70% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Musty orange fruit flesh, cranberry sauce, strawberry, and tart cherry - lots of bright red fruit. Some malt hides behind that, and we get a hint of bubblegum and some peppery spice with time. Caramel adds some sweetness, and later, we find more dark stewed fruit like raisin in the background.
Palate: Tons of gummy bears and other fruit candy - really a fruit bomb of a whisky. Sugary strawberry, oranges, dark raisin and white raisin, and then some fruitcake; sweet grain, honey syrup, spiced caramel, and prune add more sweetness. There is a bit of cinnamon, maybe clove, which adds spice; it's a medium thickness mouthfeel.
Finish: More baking spices build - cinnamon especially, but also vanilla, cardamom, and a spiced brown sugar. Syrupy strawberry, cherry, and stewed prune come back, and we also get walnuts, and some sugary malt, as well as wood spice on the back end. It's a medium length finish.
Final Note: This is a fun sherry-matured whisky - lots of bright fruit, as opposed to dark fruits, and it's still quite fresh and malty. Those sherry casks do a decent job of covering up the spirity youthful notes of this 6 year single malt, and we enjoyed the baking spices that built up in the finish as well. A solid bottle of whisky, and a decent introduction to the Clydeside brand.
Value for this bottle is fine, just on the low side of average for our scale; those bright, fresh sherry flavors are fun, but this still needs some time to develop more complexity and move up our scoring chart, and accordingly, value at $70 is just alright.
Our Rating: 6.1 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 5.82
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
