Linkwood 12-year-old Pure Highland Malt (Bottled 1970s) / 43% / 0.75l

Linkwood Distillery was built in Elgin in 1821 by Peter Brown. In 1872 his son William demolished the original buildings and built a new distillery in their place.

In 1932, the plant was purchased by John McEwan & Co, whose assets will be taken over by the DCL group, leaving it with a license to produce Linkwood whisky (John McEwan & Co. was officially dissolved in 2010). Today, Linkwood distills in three pairs of stills, producing 5.6 million liters of distillate, mainly for blends from the Diageo portfolio. The Linkwood 12 year old presented here is a whisky from another era, distilled in the original plant equipped with a single pair of stills (Linkwood B began operating in 1972 and distillation took place in both until 1985) and bottled by John McEwan & Co. at 43% abv. This whisky offers a short journey back in time, from a modern and efficient 21st century distillery to a plant where most of the work was done by hand. 

Nose: barley malt, spring meadow, apples, pears, pineapples, beeswax, honey, vanilla, ginger, white pepper, mint leaf, furniture polish and a fleeting trace of smoke.

Palate : honeyed breakfast cereals, vanilla, milk fudge, apples, peaches, quince jam, licorice, walnuts, lemongrass, white pepper, ginger, notes of anise and oak.

Finish : quite long, waxy, with notes of summer fruits, licorice, vanilla, honey, pepper, ginger and oak.