Linkwood 12 Year (2006) SMWS 39.185 “Splinter-studded spanking”
Image Credit: /u/b1uepenguin aka Whiskery Turnip. You can find his excellent review here.
Review by: zSolaris
Distillery: Linkwood.
Bottler: SMWS.
Region: Speyside.
Age: 12 year, distilled on July 12th, 2006.
Cask Type: 10 years in an ex-bourbon cask, 2 years in a new oak heavy toast, medium char cask.
ABV: 59.4%.
Price: Courtesy of /u/b1uepenguin.
Color: 1.4, Tawny.
This review was done blind.
Nose: Chocolate and lots of of it along with some caramel are the dominant notes here. There is also a bit of fruit in the form of raspberries and cherries along with a bit of leather varnish.
Palate: This has a rather hefty mouthfeel to it. It is also quite warm on the palate, but its a comforting warmth rather than the type that you wonder will burn your tongue off. Notes of dark chocolate covered cherries are what come to mind. Adding a little bit of water turned up the heat on this, oddly enough, though thankfully drowning it in water seems to have gotten it back under control. After adding a substantial amount of water to control this, notes of caramel apples come out.
Finish: Fairly short in length. Bit of shortbread with apple butter are what come to mind.
Guess: Scotland. Malt whisky. Highland. SMWS. Sherry cask. 10-14 years of age. 50-55% ABV. Gonna guess Blair Athol.
Reveal: Linkwood 12 Year (2006) SMWS 39.185 “Splinter-studded spanking”.
Conclusion: Immediately upon seeing the reveal on this fun mystery whisky, I popped on over to WhiskyBase and saw that they had a “HTMC” cask listed for this SMWS bottling. My first reaction was “what the heck is HTMC” and my second was “what on earth did they do to bury all of the distillate”. Well, turns out Linkwood might not stand up to heavy toast, medium char new oak casks particularly well. I associate Linkwood heavily with a mix of orchard fruits and greenery. If you drown this in water, you do get a bit of apple, but the cask has really taken the wheel and taken over. What you get isn’t bad, the chocolate and cherry notes in the nose and palate are fun and the bit of shortbread in the finish is nice, but not what I would want from a Linkwood at all.
Rating: 77.
Scoring Legend:
95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 
