Linkwood is usually an affordable favorite among IB's so therefore there are always a big variety of Linkwoods available these days. Let's have a look at two heavily sherried ones and one from The Whisky Connoisseur.
Linkwood 17yo 1979-1996 46% Murray McDavid cask#3016
This is from a fresh sherry cask, not a refill. The color is brown. It smells of cinnamon, cardamum, leather, tobacco, caramel, malt syrup, honey, nice sherried style. The taste is bitter, dry, leather, coffee, tobacco, spicy cinnamon, oregano, basil leaves, tamarind. Adding some water. Now it turns lighter, more caramel, sugar, coconut, strawberry jam, orange marmalade, very fruity and sweet now. I'd say this is better without water added, even if its certainly more sip-able with some.
Fine Linkwood, but I think this could've been a winner at CS: 5
Linkwood/Spyniemor 22yo 1972-1994 51.8% The Whisky Connoisseur
It seems all the bottlings today was bottled in the 90's, so quite some old Linkwoods then, bottle maturation? The color on this one is amber golden. It smells of sea reek, old fishing boats and that sort of stuff, boiled crab, salt water, a really coastal Linkwood? becomes more fresh with time. The taste is sweet, maize, malty, onions, cedar wood, pickles, lime rind, sugar, fruity, zesty, strawberries, honey, fantastic stuff. The finish is peppery, raw-ish, oaky, but that's not a problem, it actually creates a nice contrast to the multi-faceted palate.
Taste and treasure, great stuff: 8
Linkwood 21yo 1969-1991 55.8% Cadenhead's
A sherried one from Cadenhead's, I remember some of them, well many of the actually, being sherried and fantastic. Those bottlings are becoming scarcer as we speak, so if you got one laying around, now is as good of a time as ever to try something unique without them fanfares and bright lights going off in your head when opening the bottle. Remember, tasting a brora against a linkwood, most people will immediately put the Brora a couple points ahead just for the rareness of the drink. So, I guess in years to come, people will do the exact thing if they compare sherried whiskies with bourboned ones. The color on this one is dark brown. It smells of cinnamon, resinous, figs, dates, dark grapes, camphor, engine oil, sawdust, ammonium, dark chocolate, raisins, superb old style sherry. The taste is of sweet rum, dark grapes, onions, leather, tobacco, cinnamon, juniper berries, oaky. Time for some water. Now it turns sweeter, more crisp, hay, ammonium, chlorine, dark grapes, dry port wine, sugar, oloroso sherry, red wine vinegar, just as good with water as bare.
Incredible stuff, I could go on with this for hours: 9
Next tasting: Macallan Distillery
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