This one was an unannounced extra from De Whiskykoning. He thought to throw in an extra kick-ass whisky because he forgot about it at first and the tasting wasn’t ridiculously underpriced enough.

There isn’t much to say about this whisky apart from the heavy sherry influence. Also, four of the people at the tasting had been to a previous ‘stock news’ tasting at De Whiskykoning and they all bought this bottle. That says enough, I guess.

Linkwood 19 for Van Wees

Sniff:
Really spicy sherry, with (duh) lots of spices and not much fruit. The ‘sherry’ scents are really heavy. A bit of peppery heat too, and a rather sharp weight to it. Allspice I think, with quite a bit of wood influence too.

Sip:
The palate is a bit more fruity but still has the heat from the pepper and sherry flavours. Bitter and sweet with sweet tea.

Swallow:
The finish is a bit more friendly but still has a lot of pepper and wood. It doesn’t last very long but shows a remarkable amount of sherry again.

This, although a rather strange one without much fruit, and LOTS of spices, is a damn delicious whisky. I even found out that my tasting notes had some similarities with the description on the bottle! What are the chances of that…

Anyway, I’d love to find myself a bottle of this stuff but I probably won’t. I didn’t know what to expect from it, but it proves again that Linkwood is a distillery that produces some damn fine whisky. I understand more and more that Tom is a fan.

Linkwood 1993-2012, 52.8, 19yo, Gordon & MacPhail for Van Wees. This should set you back about € 80 if you can find it.