The Blind Tasting Competition rages on and I fell back a bit with a few bad guesses and with some whiskies I didn’t like much. But then, dram #15 arrived and oh my, what’s a lovely drink it is. My first instinct was some nicely aged whisky (23 year old or so) and the floral note should have lead me to Linkwood. but instead I went for a 12 year old from a different region and so I got no points (AVB was close but not close enough). I guess I deserve it if instead of working hard on the dram, I spent my evening watching NFL , ah?
Adelphi Linkwood 1990 24 Year Old (57.5%, €155.81)
Nose: Yummy! Fragrance, honey and floral, peaches, coconuts, wood varnish and some sourness that turns into a funky and dirty note (yet lovely), white pepper and chocolate. Continue reading
Nose: Hmm, first sniff was weird with lots of lactic notes and dirt, but it settled down after some air exposure and then we got a myriad of notes: honey and a lot of farmy notes with hey, grass and a bit of greenery. It has that lovely dirtiness combo of brine, peat smoke and diesel oil. How dirty it is? let’s say that after a bit while, it’s dirtier than the dirty dozen 🙂 oh, and I still get a weak lactic note but it’s fitting OK in the big picture here.
Nose: A very closed nose sporting honey, a touch of toffee, dusty, malt, hints of nuts, greenery and malt. I decided to let it rest for 10 minutes in the glass and was rewarded with lovely notes of fruit which later on evolved to include soursweet tropical fruit such as mango and papaya. mild oak wood spices.
Nose: Sherried nose, but it’s very relaxed with sour and sweet berries, dates, spicy with pepper. Lots of cereals, salty, probably an oloroso sherry cask. With more time in the glass, more sherry spices of nutmeg and cinnamon. 
Nose: Freshly cut grass, sweet honey with sour edge, nutty, white pepper, limestone and chalk. with time: flowers and perfume, red fruit, stronger limestone/chalk. With water: fruitier, a lot of citrus and a tad more perfume.
Nose: Initial nosing had a dirty note and subtle peat, grassy, green tomatoes and a dash of honey. On the second tasting it was less funky and had a diluted and mellowed wine’n’peat, dash of heather honey. vinegary, malty. 
Nose: Initial impression screams speyside! But we know it’s not a speysider, arggghhhh! At first it’s a bit spicy with ginger, nutty, sweet fruit (mostly red apples), a touch of red berries, toffee, dry and thin. Light honeycomb, oak wood spices. After it breaths for a while there are pink grapefruits, oranges with some soft perfume edge. With water: more grapefruits and sweeter and at last there’s some body here and it’s not so thin. 
Whisky Gospel 