This will be a shorter review since I've written about the distillery before. See the previous Linkwood review for more info. The Linkwood we'll be trying today is from the independent bottler Signatory, which is based in the picturesque little Scottish town (or rather burgh) Pitlochry in Perthshire. The company also owns the Edradour distillery, located on the same grounds. Signatory is probably the independent bottle company with the most releases; around 50 different single malts are available at any one time and they have an incredible range of casks in their several huge warehouses. It's quite the experience to wander through them and look at all the precious casks from all over Scotland. I've had both great as well as bland bottles from Signatory, so I'm interested to see how this one will do.
1995 Signatory Vintage Linkwood matured for 21 years on two hogsheads
Age: 21 yo (1995-2016)
ABV: 43%
Region: Speyside
Bottler: Signatory
Cask No's 5932+5936
Bottle No. 237
Price: ~50 USD / 0.7L
Natural color
Appearance: Sauternes wine.
Nose: Lemon drops and vanilla. After a while I find very faint traces of peat!
Palate: Bubblegum sweetness. Quite peppery. More lemon drops and juicy, almost overripe clementines. Malt and caramel. The malt and the citrus notes together create the feeling of eating a marmalade sandwich. Quite clean and fresh on the whole.
Finish: Dry, malty and far too short for a 21 year old, with a tad bitterness resembling lemon peel. Becomes watery fast.
Conclusion: Certainly not living up to its age. I've had a wonderful 15 year old sherry matured Linkwood from the Italian independent bottler Samaroli and a 19 year old from Berry Bros & Rudd. Despite being younger, they were both miles ahead in terms of complexity. The only upside is that it costs like a standard 12-15 year old whisky. Good, but overall quite forgettable. 81 points.
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