WHISKY REVIEWS, NEWS, HISTORY & FOLKLORE
This is part two of a mini-series of reviews featuring small batch Speyside malts from the Dalgety range. Dalgety is a bottling line from Hannah Whisky Merchants, the company behind Lady of the Glen. The whisky featured in this review comes from Linkwood Distillery in Speyside.
*Full disclosure: the whisky featured in this review was sent to me free of charge. As always I will try to give an honest opinion on the quality of the dram and the value for money it represents.
Linkwood 2013 Single Malt
Linkwood perches on the outskirts of Elgin in Speyside. It was established in 1821 and had several owners before it was acquired by Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) in the 1930s. SMD was an off-shoot of the Distillers Company Ltd (DCL), which eventually became Diageo and Linkwood remains part of that company’s vast distillery portfolio today. Little of its whisky finds its way to the single malt market. Instead, the distillery supplies the owners with whisky for their many Blended Scotch brands.
This Linkwood malt is a vatting of two casks. The first was finished in a first-fill oloroso hogshead, the second in a refill oloroso hogshead. The whisky is 10 years old with a bottling strength of 51.1%.
Smell: You’d be forgiven for expecting dried fruits given the mention of oloroso but for me this was more biscuity with the sherry adding a touch of nuttiness. Toffee and caramel. Some peach and orange liqueur. A wee touch of wood varnish. Milk chocolate. Snickers bars! Malty with touches of oak char. Some lighter, fresher fruits underneath.
Taste: Highland Toffee and wood spice. Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove… Now there’s some dried fruits along with caramelised almonds. Orange marmalade. Malty again. Like a cross between oatcakes and shortbread. Oaky finish with some of the nuttiness lingering.
Thoughts: This is good stuff. The sherry finish has added quite a lot to the experience without overpowering the dram with stereotypical oloroso notes. We’re definitely not in sherry bomb territory. There’s a nice feeling of development as it flows from arrival to finish with the sherry adding wee layers of flavour along the way and if you dig a bit deeper and maybe add some water, there’s some distinct spirit character there too. It’s an effective demonstration as to why malty spirits and oloroso casks work so well together.
Price: £65. Balance is the key to the success of this one and £65 is fairly reasonable in today’s market.
For more on Dalgety visit here
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