Whiter Shade of Pale - 7 year old Linkwood Single Cask

SIPPING SMOOTH SPEYSIDE – No Smoke – SINGLE CASK – SINGLE MALT

An utterly gorgeous and delicate sipper from the darling of Speyside. We’ve never had a bad dram from Linkwood distillery. This cask is unusual…. really really unusual- it’s one for our fellow spirits buffoons.

A SLIGHTLY TECHNICAL INFO DUMP…

Most Scotch casks are filled with new spirit at around 63.5% abv, as it ages this abv normally drops steadily over the years as both alcohol and bulk are lost to evaporation- we call this the Angel’s share. However, something is different here, the ABV has plunged in 7 short years of maturation- it’s an outlier. So what does that mean? Well lots… whisky maturing at a low strength extracts differently from the oak than whisky at high strength giving an altered flavour profile. Likewise, the high loss (circa 64 litres / 26.4% lost to evaporation in 7.5 years), means that there has lots of air in the cask exposing the liquid to oxygen. We feel like this has catapulted the maturation forward with it tasting old beyond it’s years.

This is a single refill hogshead. This cask type is the bread and butter of scotch maturation and in this case is quite ‘light touch’ maturation. As the wood has been used before, the oak influence is minimal which allows us to get a closer look at the spirit itself in isolation. This is a really interesting whisky for our fellow enthusiasts.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

It just made sense. When we first drew the sample, we had to ask ourself if our customers would buy it. Many whisky drinkers are ‘turned off’ by a really pale colour. However, we’d never ever artificially colour an Uncharted whisky with E150 Caramel. When we tasted it and saw the unusual maturation path this cask had taken, we thought ‘yeah ok, this is an off the grid malt’. We decided to have abit of fun with the colour and name. It’s a really fitting song as well- smooth, mellow, beautiful.

An INSIGHT AND CAVEAT…

When we bottle at natural cask strength, the ABV can change slightly between the last time we measure it and it actually hitting glass. This was measured at 45.6% ABV on 24th July of 2024, by the time September rolls around, this might have changed slightly- it’s the nature of real minimal intervention whisky. Likewise, our bottle out-run is our ‘best guess’ for now but until the last bottle is sealed, the yield is unknown.

As always…. Un-chill filtered. Natural colour.

[This listing was written by Jack on 21/08/2024]

ABV(%)	45.9%
Volume (cl)	70
Age (Years)	7
Cask Reference	UC038
Distillate	Linkwood
Distillation Date	November 2016
Bottling Date	September 2024
Bottle Outturn	267

Nose

Pineapple, lemon shortbread, gooseberry jam and pear drops and American cream soda.

Palate
Florals, oak, vanilla ice cream and a second helping of good buttery shortbread. Dangerously drinkable.

Finish

Long, soft and smooth. A touch of fresh cracked pepper, stone fruit and oak.

[Tasting notes always written by Jack and Dana together]

DELIVERY INFO

United Kingdom

Free delivery on orders of any 2 bottles or more. £5.50 P&P charge on single bottles.

Orders within the UK will normally be delivered in 3 working days in fully recyclable, plastic free packaging- Long Live Planet Earth!

Europe

Please note items sent from the UK to EU countries will be liable for VAT and Customs Duty in their own country. Please proceed to checkout to see the price for delivery.