Over the years, we ourselves have made many pronunciation errors. In fact, one moment canonised in my university history, was the time I corrected somebody else with the phrase “I believe you have mispr-nun-ced that word” – My housemates never let me live that one down. However, some of the ones that we have overheard have been so great, that it has only seemed natural to adopt the new pronunciation as simply an improvement.
These words are:
Jalapeno – The much loved, medium sized chilli pepper – Pronounced JAL-AP-ANO in a Plymothian branch of Subway.
Knaresborough – The small, market town in Yorkshire – Pronounced C-NEZ-A-BAROO by an unsuspectingly brilliant American tourist.
Caol Ila – The most mispronounced Islay distillery of them all – Pronounced KOALAAAAA by a jocular whisky buddy.
Another item ticked off my list of poorly pronounced words was Glen Moray, which to my shame I had always pronounced MoRAY instead of the actual Glen MURRAY. After many mistaken attempts and much coaching, we headed off to the final distillery on our Speyside Tour.
Click on the photos to see them enlarged and read more about them, then click anywhere on the page to carry on.
Tour Review
We were very lucky that we got to tour the distillery with Iain Allen, who is the Distillery Visitor Centre Manager at Glen Moray. He spoke candidly about the distillery production process, about the business of making whisky and about the amazing investment that new(ish) owners La Martiniquaise have poured into the place. From walking round you can see this investment and the impact it is having on production. To me the most important part of this change, is the faith that the new owners are placing in the distillery to produce a range of interesting and well priced Single Malts. Over previous years, Glen Moray spirit would have gone mainly into blended whisky and even though lots still does, it seemed to me that to some extent the distilleries beautiful spirit was being undervalued. Now, single malt production seems to have firmly retaken it’s place at the front and centre of production, which means the distillery has been able to firmly refresh and re find its own unique identity.
Glen Moray is a distillery that you are well treated at. They allow you into all aspects of the process and seem to only employ passionate and knowledgeable staff. The whiskies that are available to try at the end of the tour are incredible in their quality and diversity. We were blown away by the quality of the 1994 range, with the Sherry Cask being the firm favourite amongst our group. We also bottled and took home a distillery exclusive Bourbon Cask bottling, which went down very well with everyone that shared in a sample back at home.
We can’t finish without giving a mention to the food at Glen Moray. The sandwiches and soup were absolutely fantastic, so much so that I entirely forgot to take any pictures, so when you book a tour, also book a lunch too!
For unfettered access to the process, fantastic depth of information, brilliant food and great whisky, we would give the tour 10/10.
For more information and to book a tour, head to: http://www.glenmoray.com/speyside-distillery-tours (and mention us!)