Linkwood 12 Years Review

Country: Scotland

Region: Highland/Speyside

Brand: Linkwood Sherry Wood (2000-2012)

Selected by and Bottled for Wilson & Morgan, Edinburgh

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: NAS (But in fact 12 Years)

ABV: 48 %

Date: 09/02/2013

Colour: Golden

Nose: Strong Nose as could be expected at 48%. This dram needs opening up so give it sufficient time. First impressions are Straw, Oloroso Sherry, Cooked Potatoes/Vegetables (Sulphur perhaps), Malt and Toast with Dairy Butter. After a while I get Honey, Oak, Vanilla, Pear and light Floral Tones. Later still, Red Fruit and Red Wine. It gets Sweeter as well after 40 minutes or so. Pretty mature Nose for a 12 year old whisky. The flavours come in layers rather than presenting themselves as a balanced ensemble right from the start. It's not a Nose that gives you immediate - and attractive flavours. You have to dig deep and use every angle to find what you're looking for. 

Palate: Strong and creamy delivery with Oloroso Sherry, Red Fruit (Tea), Oak, Caramel, Pepper, Ginger, Licorice and some Dried Fruits. There is a light Alcohol bite of course but this Linkwood is definitively smooth despite its high ABV.

Finish: Quite Long with Spices like Pepper, Nutmeg and Ginger, Red Wine, Licorice, Oak and Vanilla. Sweet at first but dryer towards the end.

I added a couple of drops of water and you get rid of the Alcohol and Potatoes on the Nose. Instead you get lots of Butter, Malt and Honey. Some extra Red Wine and Fruit on the Palate. You can certainly experiment with a small teaspoon of water here.  

Rating: 85.5 (out of 100)

Nose: 21 - Taste: 21.5 - Finish: 21.5 - Overall: 21.5 

General Remarks: The Wilson & Morgan Company is an Independent Bottler, based in Italy. Owners are the Rossi family that started importing Blends in the sixties. Single Malt Selection was added in the 1980's and in 1992 Wilson & Morgan was founded by Fabio Rossi to attend the high end Single Malt market. At various distilleries, W&M selects barrels for their Barrel Selection series. Most of the casks mature at the distillery itself. The Linkwood I'm tasting today was distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2012. It matured in Sherry Butt # 2 of a limited Barrel selection and is Non Chill-Filtered. It sells at around 60 US Dollars. The Linkwood Distillery was founded around 1820, is located close to Elgin and is now part of the Diageo Group. Most of the production goes into blends like White Horse, Haig, Bells and Dimple.

Drinking Experience Neat: Good

Conclusion: If you like sherried Speysiders, this Linkwood is an excellent alternative. Very creamy, enjoyable Palate and good Finish. The Nose opens up real slow and you need a lot of Patience there. Otherwise you might easily dismiss it as uninteresting and even a bit sour. But all in all a good performance from Wilson & Morgan/Linkwood.

Jan van den Ende                                                                  February 2013

Drumguish 5 Years Single Malt Review

Country: Scotland

Region: Highland/Speyside

Brand: Drumguish

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: 5 Years

ABV: 40 %

Date: 07/02/2013

Colour: Light Amber

Nose: Musty Grain, Malt, Cooked Vegetables, Metallic, Margarine and Menthol. No significant Wood influence and only a very light hint of Earthy Peat. This is a very young whisky. Too young in fact. 

Palate: Light, Watery and Medium Dry. Again, only a very light Wood influence. A bit of Menthol, Grain and Earth with a pinch of Salt.

Finish: Short and Bitter Sweet. Dry and Salty towards the end. A bit of Menthol.

I added a couple of drops of water and you get a bit more Malt on the Nose and even a distant hint of Fruit. Palate and Finish are just watered down.

Rating: 69.5 (out of 100)

Nose: 17.5 - Taste:  17.5 - Finish:  17 - Overall: 17.5

General Remarks: The Drumguish is distilled at The Speyside Distillery at the banks of the river Tromie in Drumguish, near Kingussie. It started production in 1990 and is a private enterprise of Mr. George Christie. It  takes its name from the original Speyside Distillery that was also located in Kingussie and was only operational between 1895 and 1905. It was demolished in 1911. The whisky from the distillery gets its peaty flavour from the water that flows down from the Cairngorm Mountains. The distillery also produces its flagship, the Speyside Single Malt. The Drumguish 5 years maybe hard to find, even on line. It's very cheap at around 20 US Dollars. 

*You might wonder why not all whisky of this distillery is sold under the distillery name. The reason is that owner George Christie did not want to link the name The Speyside to very young whiskies. On the other hand, the distillery needed cash in the early years so the B-Mark Drumguish was created to be able to present these young whiskies to the market without prejudicing the valuable brand name The Speyside.

Drinking Experience Neat: Below Average.

Conclusion: I can understand some of the problems of a young distillery. You invest a lot of money and you want to make a good whisky. Making good whisky takes time and requires ample working capital. So while your whisky is maturing you need to pay interest and other expenses. In order to be able to do that you have to produce some cash flow and as a result you are forced to bring an unfinished product like the Drumguish 5 Years to the Market. So what can I say, the dram does not possess extremely distasteful off notes so you can mix it with something I suppose. But it's obvious that this whisky is much too young and not at all interesting enough to be enjoyed as a Single Malt. On the other hand, Mr. Christie's strategy seems to have worked. The distillery stayed in business during the difficult early years and in the end was able to proudly launch The Speyside 12 Years Single Malt. Would be nice to taste that one in comparison!

Jan van den Ende                                                                  February 2013

The Cairngorm Mountains

Tomintoul 12 Years Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish Review

Country: Scotland

Region: Speyside 

Brand: Tomintoul Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: 12 Years

ABV: 40 %

Colour: Golden/Light Amber

Nose: I'm struggling a bit with the Nose of this Tomintoul. I get the Sherry notes for sure together with a very light impression of Sulphur. And some familiar stuff like Hay, Oak, Malt, Toffee, Lemon Zest and Dried Fruits. Some Floral tones as well. And I also get a pair of completely different flavour sensations from time to time. Mind you, I have nosed this dram for more than 60 minutes. Sometimes I am sitting at a breakfast table with Toast, Breakfast Cereals and Orange - and Apple Juice. And sometimes I get Oriental impressions such as Cardamom, Ginger and Soy Sauce. It's like Yin and Yang.The Nose is interesting enough but I can't say I find it extremely appealing.

Palate: Slightly Watery Delivery. I find Pralines, Sherry, Red Fruit, Malt, Toffee and Spices like Cardamom, Nutmeg, Ginger and Pepper.

Finish: Middle-Long with very recognisable Wine Gums (mostly the Red ones) as well as Sherry, Barley Sugar, Pepper, Orange, Oak and hints of Chocolate and Cardamom.

I added a bit of water and you get a bit more Fruit, Blossom, Toffee and Malt on the Nose. Palate and Finish are just washed down. The whisky does get a bit more smooth with water.

Rating: 82.5

Nose: 21 - Taste: 20.5  - Finish: 20.5  - Overall: 20.5

General Remarks: 

This distillery only started its operations in 1964 and released its first Single Malt only in 1973. Its nickname is The Gentle Dram. The distillery is located close to the river Avon, some 13 kilometres outside the village of Tomintoul, the highest village in the Highlands. Since 2000 the distillery is owned by Angus Dundee Distillers PLC, London. The whisky I'm tasting today is a so called Limited Edition. Limited quantities of regular Tomintoul 12 distilled in the autumn of 1995 were transferred to Oloroso Sherry Casks in January 2006 to finish maturation in order to enhance the whisky with some Sherry sweetness. The first bottles of this expression were presented to the market in October 2007. It costs around 50 US Dollars.

Drinking Experience Neat: Good 

Conclusion: Pfff, difficult this one. I don't think this is a bad dram. The Sherry is well integrated and does not dominate anywhere. But I simply don't manage to connect with this Whisky. I don't hear what it wants to say to me and, believe me, I've listened long enough. I've had the 10 Years before Tomintoul 10 and although I scored that a tad higher I did notice the absence of some Sherry Notes. That's of course not the case here. When comparing the two I did not find the regular 10 to be better but I did think it to be ever so slightly more appealing. In any case the two expressions were not able to turn me into a big fan of this distillery. Maybe the 16 and/or 33 Years, that I will review later on, can do that trick. 

Jan van den Ende                                                             February 5, 2013