Side by side : Independent Linkwood

On today's Side by side we're looking at two independently bottled Linkwoods. It's not a whisky you see very much, I can only think of one distillery bottling I've tried, all the rest I've tried or seen have been indies.

Let see how they compare side by side!

Linkwood is owned by distillery giant Diageo, most of it's output goes into the White Horse & Johnnie Walker blends. There is only one distillery bottling available at the moment a 12yo in the Flora and Fauna series at around £45. Most of the releases you will see come from independent bottlers.

Linkwood distillery was built in 1821 on the outskirts of Elgin by Peter Brown, it started production in 1825. Two stills with a capacity of 4,500 litres per year under the control of distillery manager James Walker. When Brown died in 1868 the business was passed on to his son William Brown. The distillery was replaced with a new one in 1873 with a hugely increased capacity of  227,000 litres per year. In 1898 then distillery floated on the stock exchange. using the cash to further extend it's capacity to 454,000 litres per year.

Between the wars ownership was taken over by Scottish Malt Distillers, which itself was bought by United Distillers and temporary closure followed between during World War II as a result of barley shortage. After the war the distillery was again rebuilt and electrified, replacing the steam engine and water wheel that powered the distillery before. all the stills were also replaced.

A second distillery was built alongside the first in 1971, which became known as Linkwood B, with steam heated stills with a combined capacity of 2.5 million litres per year. The stills of the first distillery were converted to steam heating and continued operation until 1985. The original distillery was demolished in 2012 to allow the building of six new wash backs and two new stills. Capacity is now in excess of 5.5m litres per annum. 

Linkwood is bottled as a 12-year-old in Diageo’s Flora & Fauna range, and for many years semi-official bottlings have come from Gordon & MacPhail. In this side by side I've got a release from @dtcwhiskies and the latest release from @Waxhouse_X.

Established in 1938, Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky Limited is a specialist independent whisky merchant with one of the  largest privately held collections of aged single malt and single grain Scotch whisky casks. Today, the company releases these prized spirits via an impressive range of award-winning product brands, all bottled at its headquarters in Huntly.

This is the third Waxhouse Whisky release and I've been impressed with all of them. Founded in 2019 by members of the St. Albans Whisky Club, their bottle labels are simple and informative leaving plenty of clear glass to see the liquid within.

Let's see what they are like:

Dram	Duncan Taylor 2009 11yo Single Cask #7636905	Waxhouse Whisky Company 2010 10yo Single Cask #306782
Characteristics	53.7% ABV D: Apr '09, B: Jul '20, 11yo Ex-bourbon 259 bottles	50.1% ABV D: May '10, B: Dec '20, 10yo Red Wine Barrique 310 bottles
Bottler info	Nose: Fair amount of sweet fruits, red apples, strawberries with toasted brioche notes and hint of milk chocolate Taste: Again more fruit, more tropical and very luscious and robust. Pomegranate with slight creaminess and peppery flavours. Finish: Initial juicy fruits becoming drier but then the fruits re-emerge alongside toasted oaky notes - delicious finish.	Nose: Green apples, freshly cut grass, buttered toffee with notes of cinnamon and marzipan. Palate: Chelsea buns, toasted teacakes with fruit jam, frangipane and warm winter spice. Finish: Warm brioche, winter spice with rich red wine appearing late on.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Very pale gold, almost white wine in the glass. Swirls cling and bead up, falling as slow thick legs.	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling and bead up, falling as slow thick legs.
Nose	Huge orchard fruit notes - stewed apples and pears, drying apricot, peaches A little time and air offers a little vanilla, milk chocolate, orange peel and a hint of smoke.	Again huge orchard fruit notes but with some hedgerow fruit too - blackberries, strawberries, raspberries. A little time and air opens up some icing sugar and almond nut notes again with a little hint of smoke.
Palate	Thick oily arrival, initially very sweet but this soon dissipates leaving the orchard fruit from the nose to coat the mouth. A few more sips gives an honey note with drying icing sugar.	Thick and oily, huge sweet orange notes, a little peppery spice and drying icing sugar. As the liquid disappears the orchard fruit come through - apples, pears and apricots alongside the berries from the nose. Again a sweet drying icing sugar tail.
Finish	Lingering orchard fruit and honey sweetness.	Long drying spiced orange notes with some berry fruits.
Overall	There isn't much Linkwood around, I've only tried a handful so they are worth hunting out. The Duncan Taylor came from their excellent Dimensions range, this one under the banner of "Lesser Know Distilleries". This third release from Waxhouse is the first time I've heard of Linkwood being matured in anything but ex-bourbon, Whiskybase suggests that Diageo released a red wine finish as part of their 2008 Special Releases but this is a different beast having spent all it's 10 years in the Barrique. The DT Linkwood is as close as you are going to get to 'standard' ex-bourbon Linkwood showing distillery character - orchard fruit, thick oily mouthfeel and honey sweetness.. The Waxhouse Linkwood has been matured in a red wine Barrique but it hasn't lost any of this character. It's added a layer of complexity - berry fruit, sweet orange and peppery spice. Both had faint hints of smoke on the nose but nothing on the palate or finish - they were both of course un-peated. DT have been bottling for over 80 years and know how to pick a good cask, Waxhouse have been doing it for less than 3 but seem to have picked up the knack of finding good casks very quickly. The DT is long since sold out but the Waxhouse is still available from their website.

Many thanks to @Waxhouse_X for their sample.


Geeky Stuff:

Waxhouse Releases
Release	Distillery	Bottled	Age	ABV	Bottles
003	Linkwood	2020	10yo	50.1%	310
002	Glenrothes	2020	13yo	50.7%	170
001	Ruadh Maor	2016	8yo	51.3%	380