Uncharted Whisky, Whiter Shade of Pale, Linkwood 7 Year Old
Key Facts About This Single Malt Scotch
Bottler: Uncharted Whisky Company
Founders: Jack Breslin and Dana de Vos
Release: Whiter Shade of Pale
Distillery: Linkwood
Region: Speyside, Scotland
Age: 7 years
Distilled: November 2016
Bottled: September 2024
Cask Type: Single hogshead
Cask Ref: UC038
Alcohol by Volume: 45.9%
Outturn: 267 Bottles
Bottle Size: 700ml
Bottled: Natural colour and non chill filtered
Linkwood 7 Year Old Tasting Notes
Nose: Pineapple, lemon shortbread, gooseberry jam, 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.
About Uncharted's Whiter Shade of Pale
This is a lovely, delicate sipper from the darling of Speyside. And this particular cask from Uncharted Whisky is unusual… really unusual. It’s one for us spirits geeks.
Most Scotch casks are filled with new make 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 is lots of air in the cask exposing the liquid to oxygen. This has catapulted the maturation forward, with it tasting old beyond its 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 fellow enthusiasts.
Why the name ‘White Shade of Pale’? It just made sense. When Jack and Dana first drew the sample, they had to ask themselves if customers would buy it. Many whisky drinkers are ‘turned off’ by a really pale colour. However, they’d never, ever artificially colour an Uncharted whisky with E150 Caramel. When they tasted it and saw the unusual maturation path this cask had taken, they thought ‘yeah ok, this is an off the grid malt’. They decided to have a bit of fun with the colour and name. It’s a really fitting song as well - smooth, mellow, beautiful.
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Meet The Founders
Jack Breslin and Dana de Vos