Glen Moray was a distillery that I hadn’t had the pleasure of drinking a single dram of, until the recent #Dram16Winners Tweet Tasting. Their 16 Year Old won an award at this year’s Spirit of Speyside Festival and was included in the tasting. This dram was really interesting and stood out a mile for me during that tasting as the most unique whisky on offer. Glen Moray are a Speyside distillery, that is situated on the banks of the River Lossie. It is owned by a large French company called La Martiniquaise.
Tweet Tastings, by the way are a great way to get to try new whisky alongside some really interesting people. All you need is a Twitter account, an opinion and a keen eye. They are announced on the @tweettastings feed, so you need to act quickly and sign up as soon as you see an announcement.
Tonight’s dram for review is the Glen Moray Sherry Cask, is a new whisky, which when released will be less than £25. This in itself is a feat of modern whisky wizardry, so is it worth it?
Cost: £20-30
Appearance: Golden yellow, like an ageing pirates fading treasure map.
Aroma: Strong, rich notes of sherry and wood. Like a careless elderly relative has poured the Oloroso all over their favourite wooden sideboard. Oddly, these notes are complemented by another favourite of the OAP community, the ginger biscuit.
Taste: As you sip this whisky on to the palate, the first notes are light and floral. There is a sweet honeyed quality to the dram, but there are fruity notes, with the richness of apricot jam being the one that I found most present. This is a jam that I have only ever eaten wrapped in pastry on spread on toast on visits to elderly relatives. By now, my pipe and slippers are coming out and I am considering making use of my bus pass.
These sweet flavours are then completed and replaced by a sharpness of citrus and the dryness of hay. This part of the dram is spicy, but only lightly. There is a return of the heat and spice of the ginger biscuit, but these time it has been dunked in a springtime field.
Finally, the palate, like the casking finishes firmly in the sherry notes. There are rasin notes, golden sugar and a firmly oaked flavour. This bring to mind for one last time, the tipple most favoured by the more elderly relatives of my family. So I decided, if you can’t beat them, then join them, retired and started shouting at people in the supermarket about peas not being like what they used to be…
Mouthfeel: Rich, Sweet and Lightly Spiced.
Overall: It is difficult to criticise a sherried dram that costs less than £30, but criticise is what I was ready to do, until I got chance to drink it. This is a great dram. I hope it makes its way to the shelves of a supermarket near you very soon, as its a great entry level dram and one that at that price point cannot be ignored.
Real Dram Factor: 7.2
Source: Sample bottle from Producer
More Information: Glen Moray Distillery
Buy Online: Not quite yet, but when its confirmed, we will update this link.