Linkwood 13 year 2010 bourbon cask

Nose: Vanilla, honey, spring flowers, fresh bread, tropical fruit, barley, fresh earth and leather. Adding water does little to the nose. Palate: Barley sugar, orange oil, some slightly bitter honey (or maybe it’s thin molasses?), sourdough bread. With water a lot of bready ale-like notes emerge along with some ginger and clove spices. The mid palate gains depth with malt extract being evident and a sort of grippy orange flavour. The texture is creamy. Finish: Medium. Cereal and malt trailing to a gritty semi-sweet finale. A very enjoyable teenage Linkwood, just a year older than the OB 12 year old and very much in the same ballpark, just more intense and carrying more alcohol. The 12 year old’s bossy older brother. The longer this sat and opened in the glass the better it became, and a small dash of water opened it perfectly. This was a distillery-only dram drawn from a cask of Linkwood matured at Cardhu distillery (and supplied to Linkwood in an unlabelled Cardhu bottle!). “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)