
July 10, 2018

The wee duos, today Linkwood

Some flowers to be expected, maybe…

Linkwood 20 yo 1997/2018 (51.7%, Jack Wiebers Whisky World for Whisky Ship Luzern, Great Ocean Liners, bourbon, cask #731)

Ocean liners on the Luzern lake… Colour: white wine. Nose: very lovely barley-y and very malty nose, fresh, with some true vanilla, melons, sultanas, Turkish delights (maybe roses, actually, which can be quite Linkwood), heather honey… With water: it’s now full of pollen and flower nectar. Dandelions aplenty! Mouth (neat): lovely citrusy arrival, full of oranges and pink grapefruits, then a huge, and I mean really huge honeyness. We’re drinking honey, literally. With water: same, just even easier. Or rather say we’re rather geared towards mead now… Finish: medium, extremely meady/honey-y. Comments: in fact, I just adore anything that would come out of a beehive. Except stings, yeah…
SGP:641 - 90 points.

Linkwood 11 yo (60.9%, Chorlton Whisky, 2018)

A small outturn and a fair price, exactly the opposite of what some bigger players are doing. Colour: white wine. Nose: it is younger than the JWWW but profiles are similarly honeyed. Isn’t it as if many distillers have started to make their spirits more ‘precise’ since ten or twenty years? Well in this case, we’re clearly going towards mead rather than fresh honey, and then towards caramelly beers. A famous black one from Ireland springs to mind. Hops. With water: sour dough, honey, raw malt, fresh basil. Mouth (neat): it is really rich, but it’s displaying the same well-chiselled orange-y honeyeness as in the J. Wiebers. Also a little maple syrup, over peeled oranges. With water: very good, fresher, on beautiful oranges plus, indeed, a grassier kind of honey. Finish: long, a tad leafy, and more lemony at the same time. Comments: a very good drop, clear and perfectly well composed. I think the owners could launch a whole new Linkwood range and believe the distillate would deserve it.
SGP:551 - 86 points.

Check the index of all Linkwood we've tasted so far