This was a bonus sample from our final round of the Scottish Distillery Tour. It was provided by @Generously_Paul. This was a bottle we both purchased based on a glowing review from a highly respected reviewer on here. I believe Paul tracked this bottle down in the Netherlands and we paid around $160 for it. Linkwood is a somewhat obscure distillery and this was a 23 year old bottle from independent bottler, Cadenhead. This was bottled at a cask strength of 55.3% and is non-chill filtered with no added color. It’s classic gold in the tasting glass and appears oily with tiny droplets forming when you give it a spin. The nose started out with light florals, vanilla and orchard fruits. I ended up giving this one almost an hour to breathe and a little dose of water to force it to open up further. Once I gave it some H2O I was rewarded with a wonderful raspberry note, grapes, honey and some fresh oak. The aromas wafting from the glass were the highlight of this dram. The palate was immediately way too hot to really enjoy- even after an hour. The ABV really prevented this thing from relaxing much at all. Again, with water, it became a bit sweeter but the heat remained and it was overly woody and harsh. Water didn’t tame this savage beast one bit and I wasn’t about to drown it to make that happen. The finish was medium and spicy while drying. The heat mellowed a bit and became manageable and after adding water it became much fruitier. It took water to save the finish for me. Also, I did thoroughly enjoy the dry glass aromas after finishing the entire sample- I got tons of raspberry notes and that took me back to how much I enjoyed the initial nosing. It shouldn’t have taken an hour to discover, nor should it have needed water at 55%. Overall, to say I had high hopes for this bottle is an understatement. I’m torn when it comes to a score- I want to penalize it for the abrasive mouthfeel and excessive heat, but I really loved the nose and dry glass finish. The nose was 5 stars, but the palate and finish are 2.5-2.75 stars for me. I’m going to compromise and settle on 3.75. I’ve had a few whiskies that were fantastic on the nose and fell apart everywhere else and I still propped them up with higher than average scores, so I think I’ll do the same here. This bottle was pretty limited so I don’t have to recommend buying it because it’ll be so hard to find at this point- I do believe Cadenhead are releasing more Linkwood on a yearly basis, though, so you may be able to find the 24 year old version now. My advice there is buyer beware if you do- and bring water. Cheers, my friends.