Cadenhead Small Bt. 12 Linkwood 1987

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This 1987 Small Batch bottling has been bottled at 58.4% after maturing in two Sherry Butts for 28 years. Exclusive to KWM in Canada, only 30 bottles are coming into the market. Serge Valentin scored it 89pts on whiskyfun.org .

Cadenhead Small Batch whiskies are bottled either as single casks or from very small batches of no more than 4 or 5 casks. Cadenhead established in 1842, is Scotland's oldest independent bottler. Headquartered in Campbeltown, it is today owned by J.A. Mitchell & Co., Springbank Distillery's parrent company. The Cadenhead Small Batch range is exclusive to KWM in Canada.

Producer's Tasting Note

Nose: Salted Caramel, multi seed bread.  Salted butter with faint medicinal notes.

Palate: Heavier than the nose suggests.  Baked apples,   dried apricots with walnuts and sightly earthy.

Finish: Initially fruit cocktail in syrup before drying out with coal dust and toasted brown bread.

Distillery Fact: This whisky was produced on the newer stills at the distillery, known as ‘Linkwood B’ as the original stills ‘Linkwood A’ were closed in 1985.

Tasting Note by Serge at www.whiskyfun.org:

"Gasp, Cadenhead again. Colour: gold. Nose: hold on, this is austere, tight, narrow, and really earthy/leafy, even leathery. Eh? Fino? Manzanilla? With water: perfect pu-her from the best trees on the best mountains. Stunning mossy smokiness. Mouth (neat): a blade, and in that sense, an anti-Speyside. Lime and lemon, green apples, green walnuts, and yeah, manzanilla. Careful now… With water: gentler, mature, fruitier, but certainly not dull. Green apples, cider, walnuts, greengages… Finish: long, sharp, narrow, green, getting zestier by the second. Comments: okay, I’ll give it away. Do you know how Cadenhead’s are managing to have the best single malts these days? Because yeah, they have a secret, which they revealed to me after a few glasses of retsina too many, in a remote pub in Tarbert, on a cold winter night. In fact, they’re adding one bucket of Springbank to each and every cask they bottle, from Auchentoshan to Tullibardine. Serious, that’s how they do it, but shhh… that’s our little secret… SGP:461 - 89 points." 

700 ml