Glen Moray - Glenlivet

minating in a gentle floral finish.

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‘My personal favourite whiskies tend not to be overly Sherried. I like Caol Ila, for example, and my favourite Glen Moray is the new 15-year-old. I really like the balance of 50:50 oloroso Sherry casks and Bourbon barrels. As for the future, well, I fancy trying triple distillation at some point.’

Speyburn’s 18 Year Old plays towards the sherried end of the flavor spectrum, and does it rather well. A creamy chocolateness runs through the palate and into the finish, which parts with a very slight smoky, almost bitter edge to it.

Glen Moray 21 Year Old Portwood Finish

$215

Bottle of Glen Moray 21 Year Old Portwood Finish scotch with wooden barrels in background

Credit: Glen Moray

There’s a saying in Scotland that, “it is the wood that makes the whisky.”

That gives rise to quite a debate in the trade. The proponents have plenty of evidence. They point to the clear disparities in color, texture, and flavor profile between those malts matured exclusively in American bourbon barrels, for example, vis-a-vis those aged in refill wine casks.

The more reasonable of the opponents will concede to a degree but will remind us that a good cask will never save a bad whisky. That is, the wood needs unaged spirit to work with, and that spirit varies wildly between distilleries.

That we’re having this debate is a good thing. Historically, the aging of whisky was a bit, uhm, ad-hoc. The earliest Scottish and Irish distillers—farmers, crofters, and so on—matured their fiery, home distilled spirits in whatever they could get their hands on.There are even tales of distillers working with herring casks—the mere thought of which turns one’s stomach.

Nowadays, wood choices are more mainstream. Some distilleries, however, continue to mature in an eclectic range of cask types.

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Glen Moray comes to mind. Their 21 year old spends the first 19 years of its life in traditional ex-bourbon barrels and is then re-racked into ex-tawny port casks.

The result? A near-perfect balance between spirit and wood. Glen Moray’s fruit-forward house style is undeniably there, but the port imparts a remarkable richness and a much welcomed heft to the texture.

Glen Moray new releases lined up on the bar

When you consider which Scotch whisky distilleries and brands have undergone a transformation over the last two decades, few could match the significant overhaul and expansion demonstrated by Glen Moray.

At the turn of the millennium, Glen Moray was a small-ish distillery with a modest brand presence as a single malt, under the ownership of Glenmorangie PLC.  Most readers would today be aware that Glenmorangie is owned by LVMH and falls more in the deluxe/luxury category.  However, prior to LVMH’s acquisition in the mid-2000’s, Glenmorangie PLC (previously Macdonald & Muir) –  was very much in the supermarket blends game.  Glen Moray, which Macdonald & Muir had owned since 1920, was a workhorse distillery for pumping out spirit that would ultimately be destined for all manner of affordable, chain-owned blends via the likes of Tesco, Sainsbury, and so on.

Glen Moray had long been known for its “Chardonnay-mellowed” releases (chiefly a 12yo expression and a no-age-statement bottling) but when LVMH decided to “premium-ise” Ardbeg and Glenmorangie, Glen Moray was suddenly the unloved sibling in the family.  The distillery was sold to French company, La Martiniquaise in 2008, and we can only look back now and conclude it was the best thing to have happened to the distillery!

Under the new owners, Glen Moray has now undergone several expansion programs, adding a second mashtun, new washbacks, and new stills to increase its capacity.  At the time of La Martiniquaise’s purchase in 2008, the distillery had an annual capacity of just over two million litres of absolute alcohol.  Today, that figure is 8.5M litres!  And, like every other self-respecting single malt brand, its number of offerings and expressions – both core-range and limited editions – have increased tremendously.

Expansion work taking place at Glen Moray

The roof removed to install new stills and expand one wing of the stillhouse in 2017

Even before the sale in 2008, Glen Moray was well known within the industry for experimenting and trialling maturation in new and exotic cask-types, particularly ex-wine casks.  A well-worn rumour that did the rounds back in the day was that, prior to Dr Bill Lumsden undertaking any fancy cask treatment with Glenmorangie, he would trial the notion with Glen Moray first.  Many fascinating and exotic Glen Moray casks thus found their way into Glenmorangie PLC’s warehouses, and were subsequently bottled by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, courtesy of Glenmorangie PLC’s acquisition of the SMWS.  (It’s often forgotten that the Society’s Board and members voted to sell to Glenmorangie before LVMH subsequently acquired Glenmorangie!)  History lessons aside, my point is that Glen Moray was always making interesting whisky.

Glen Moray has long had a steady fan-base in Australia, perhaps demonstrated by the fact that its global brand ambassador, Iain Allan, has just made his second visit out to Australia within twelve months.  Glen Moray is featuring heavily in several whisky events this winter, and there will be numerous opportunities to not just explore the brand, but to discover the whisky in other forms, such as cocktails.

Iain hosted a series of tastings at Grain Bar in Sydney last week, which also incorporated some special Glen Moray cocktails created and presented by award-winning mixologist, Judith Zhu.  Guests were guided through an impressive line-up of six Glen Moray single malt releases, together with three cocktails put together by Zhu.  For Sydney-siders wanting to get a piece of the action, many of these Glen Moray releases will be available at Grain Bar until 16th June as part of their Fireplace Seduction experience, before then being featured as the bar’s “Spirit of the month” from 17th June – 14th July.  Victorian folks can check it out at the Melbourne edition of the Whisky Show on 6th July, and Queensland whisky-lovers can join the Glen Moray action at the Brisbane Whisky Show later in the year on 14th September.

Glen Moray drams

Making the Glen Moray experience all the more appealing, three new, limited-edition releases are now available in Australia, one of which is actually an Australia-only exclusive.  The Rioja Cask Finish and Peated Rioja Cask Finish are both superb drams that inject additional dark fruits and even chocolate notes into the mix.  However, the Australian-exclusive Shiraz Finish will get many tastebuds excited, offering up floral notes on the nose, and forest fruits on the palate – yet all melded within Glen Moray’s signature house style of sweet malt and light citrus.

Casks inside a warehouse at Glen Moray

A visit inside one of Glen Moray’s warehouses reveals a vast array of different cask types being used to mature the whisky.

Given that owning company La Martiniquaise is also behind some of the biggest selling blends in France (e.g. Label 5), it’s no surprise the company has a need for peated spirit, and thus also no surprise that Glen Moray turned its hand to making peated whisky.  Heads were turned with the quality of the peated new make spirit when it first became available in a commercial “sneak peek” release for the public… further cementing the public’s realisation that peated whisky didn’t have to come from Islay!  Many years later, with the spirit now matured and being released in aged expressions, Glen Moray’s peated bottlings add to a formidable portfolio.

If you’re planning a whisky trip to Scotland and plan on visiting a few distilleries up in Speyside, be sure to include Glen Moray on your itinerary.  The Visitor Centre is excellent and offers some of the most captivating tours in Speyside.  Check it out!

Glen Moray – The emerald of Elgin

If you’re relatively new to the whisky scene, you’ll most likely have seen a few different expressions of Glen Moray at your local retailer and perhaps wondered what the brand is all about.  Conversely, you may have been into your whiskies for a while now…and also wondered what the brand is all about!  That said, what you’ll undoubtedly have noticed in recent times is that the brand is making a bigger splash these days and is more prevalent about the place.  That’s no accident or stroke of luck, but as we’ll explore in just a moment, it’s a distillery that’s well and truly grown into its own skin and forged new frontiers.  So what’s the Glen Moray story, and why should you be exploring its whiskies?  

The Glen Moray distillery was founded 1897, having been converted from a brewery.  However, it had somewhat inauspicious beginnings, being closed just 13 years later in 1910 and eventually put up for sale in 1920.  It was purchased that year by Macdonald & Muir – the company more commonly associated with the Glenmorangie distillery and brand.  (Indeed Macdonald & Muir became Glenmorangie PLC in 1996, by which time it had a formidable number of brands, subsidiaries, and arms to its operations).  Macdonald & Muir restarted production at Glen Moray in 1923, where it then had a reasonably unremarkable run for the next 85 years – including a reconstruction in 1958 and an expansion in 1979.

The front of the distillery near the entrance on to the grounds. The tall building houses the malt bins. Image courtesy of Glen Moray

The distillery is located in Elgin, in the far north of the Speyside region, roughly 12km from where the River Spey flows into the North Sea.  Elgin is a major town these days, chiefly the main destination for shops and services for Speyside locals not wanting to make the longer journeys to either Inverness or Aberdeen.

By the start of the 21st century, Glen Moray remained a modest distillery with just four stills and an annual production capacity of around two million litres.  It had a small, relatively unheralded presence as a single malt, although was notable for its “Chardonnay-Mellowed” expressions – a term that preceded the wider uptake of the term finish.  It is oft forgotten these days that Macdonald Muir / Glenmorangie PLC was a big player in the supermarket blends game, and – in the overall scheme of things – their brands were generally associated with being at the “economy end” of the market.  Glenmorangie was the biggest selling single malt in Scotland at the time; a function of being a reliable product at an attractive price point.   Glenmorangie PLC had acquired the Ardbeg distillery in 1997, and Glen Moray took a step back from the limelight against its two sexier single malt stablemates.  Industry folklore has it that Glen Moray was often used as an experimental playground by its owners to trial different distillation and maturation strategies – particularly the finishing of whiskies in a variety of different ex-wine casks.  The experiments that worked and were successful were then often repeated on a larger scale at Glenmorangie.

Mash tun

The roof was removed to install new stills and condensors at the distillery in June, 2017

However, nothing stands still for long in the whisky game. Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy acquired Glenmorangie PLC in 2004, and by 2007 they started flexing their muscles and began re-shaping the whisky brands it had acquired to suit the company’s more luxury-focused persona.  The company completely withdrew from the supermarket blends scene; numerous brands were sold off or discontinued; and the packaging of their two key single malt brands got an upgrade and became premiumised.  Glen Moray didn’t fit the bill, and it was put up for sale in 2008…where it was quickly snapped up by French company, La Martiniquaise.   And, as anyone associated with the distillery today will tell you, it was the best thing that could have happened to the distillery.

La Martiniquaise, owners of the rapidly-growing Label 5 and Glen Turner brands of Scotch whisky, wasted no time in investing further in Glen Moray.  Over the next 13 years, the distillery underwent a series of expansion programs, adding new washbacks and stills to increase capacity.  (Today it boasts nine stills and an annual production capacity of 5.7M litres).  Its range of offerings and different expressions released to market have also increased: In 2005, the distillery had two or three core-range expressions in just 12 markets; today it boasts over 20 different expressions globally across 86 markets.  The Visitor Centre experience was also upgraded, and tours of Glen Moray are now amongst the more comprehensive of Speyside’s offerings.

The tasting mat of Glen Moray whiskies

The tasting mat of whiskies for the masterclass, together with Millie Tang’s arrival cocktail, “Early Retirement”.

Iain Allan is Glen Moray’s Global Brand Ambassador; he was in Australia recently as part of a global tour to showcase some of the more interesting expressions in Glen Moray’s portfolio, and to promote the distillery in general.   An intimate but no less comprehensive masterclass was convened at Alfy’s in Sydney – a new whisky bar destination that opened just a few months ago.  A “bar within a bar” (it’s upstairs inside the Assembly bar off Kent Street), some 30 people gathered to hear Iain share some drams and give insights into Glen Moray’s history and philosophy.

Iain Allan

Glen Moray’s Global Brand Ambassador, Iain Allan, addressing the room

Iain is one of those increasingly rare whisky Brand Ambassadors that brings the full package to the table, but does so effortlessly without any pretence or false veneer.  It’s no doubt a function of time and work at the coalface – he joined Glen Moray in 2005, having come across from another well-known Speyside distillery.  Balancing distillery facts, history, production details about each release, whisky data, and industry stories, it’s all delivered in a relaxed style with honesty and good humour.  Importantly, he can read the room and adjust or tailor his presentation to suit the needs of the event and the audience’s knowledge level.

The masterclass showcased six different expressions of Glen Moray, together with three cocktails put together by acclaimed bartender, Millie Tang, which all featured Glen Moray spirit.  Based in Brisbane, Millie flew down to Sydney to present at the event.  The cocktails nicely punctuated the masterclass, with one served on arrival, one at the “half time break”, and one at the conclusion of formalities.  If you’re keen to further explore the use of malt whisky in cocktails, you’d do well to follow Millie’s exploits – all three cocktails were sweet and delicious.  If you happen to catch her at The Gresham in Brisbane and there’s Glen Moray behind the bar, ask her to re-create either Early Retirement, Coconut Old Fashioned, or Death & Taxes.

Millie Tang

Millie Tang explaining her take on an Old Fashioned, using Glen Moray whisky

Without wanting to get too deep into the nitty-gritty of each whisky, but perhaps just sharing the “headline” details of each dram, below is the summary of the six whiskies showcased at the tasting, together with some insights about the distillery and the brand that we’ll share and intersperse along the way…

Glen Moray 12yo, 40% ABV

Badged as part of the distillery’s “Heritage Range”, the 12yo is the flagship of the brand and is matured in ex-bourbon casks.  The mix is typically 60% 1st fill, 30% 2nd fill, and 10% 3rd fill.  It’s sweet, malty, and particularly fruity – arguably higher in the malt and fruit stakes than, say, the grassier or more floral Speysiders typified by the likes of Glenfiddich or Glenlivet.  It’s well balanced and delivers nicely at 40% ABV.

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Glen Moray features shorter, squatter stills than many other distilleries.  This, together with a flatter lyne arm, means the heavier and oilier alcohols are more readily collected and make their way into the spirit.

Glen Moray 10yo “Elgin”, 46% ABV

A limited-edition release, the whisky was put together as part of Elgin’s application in 2022 for “city status” as part of the open competition for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.   1,600 bottles were produced at 46%.  The whisky spent five years in ex-bourbon casks, before being transferred to ex-chardonnay casks for a further 5 years.  Non chill-filtered, it’s spicier on the palate (pleasant hints of cinnamon), and the fruitier, drier notes of Chardonnay are also evident.

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When Glen Moray first started to expand and promote its finished whiskies (and there’s a lot of them these days!), the finishing period was typically in the range of 6-12 months.  With development, casks, and maturation now “in the bank”, the distillery is now generally looking to extend their finishing periods out to two to three years.

Glen Moray Port Cask 14yo Distillery Edition, 61% ABV

Available exclusively from the distillery, this is a unique release that spent its full maturation of 14 years in an ex-tawny port cask.  With the deliberate intention and strategy of filling the cask for a long maturation, the cask was filled at spirit strength of 69% ABV, rather than the more conventional 63.5% ABV.  The reason for this is that higher strength spirit can have a “numbing effect” on the cask, which was seen as desirable in this instance, since they didn’t want the port wood to overpower or dominate the whisky with such a long maturation.  Whilst the theory is known to hold up and has been demonstrated well in the past, the whisky was a little on the dry side to this writer’s taste, bordering on tannic.  Perhaps its sweet spot was a year or two earlier, but it remains an interesting and tasty dram, with plenty of punch!

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La Martiniquaise owns the No. 1-selling port brand in the world, Porto Cruz, giving it unparalleled and ready access to quality port casks, without the delays or expenses associated with port casks passing through third parties or brokers.  It means the distillery’s port-finished whiskies are generally on song.  (As demonstrated by the superb 21yo and previously-available 25yo Port Wood Finish releases).

Glen Moray 18yo, 47.2% ABV

Again part of the Heritage Range, the 18yo is notable for being matured 100% in 1st-fill ex-bourbon casks.  That’s a long maturation in 1st-fills, and the resulting whisky is rich and luxurious in texture with “just-right” oak influence.  The whisky is non chill-filtered, and is surprisingly herbal and grassy, offering complexity and contrast to balance the vanillas and sweetness from the American oak.

Casks inside the Glen Moray warehouse

Inside one of the Glen Moray warehouses

Glen Moray Warehouse 1 Oloroso Cask 8yo, 60% ABV

Exclusive to the UK, this limited-edition release was distilled in 2014 and produced from four ex-Oloroso sherry casks that yielded 1,950 bottles.  The whisky was well-behaved at 60% ABV, and brought the classic sweetness, spice, and fruit of oloroso-cask maturation, yet without falling into the guise of a bombastic “sherry bomb”.   

Bottle pic of Glen Moray Warehouse 1 Oloroso

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Warehouse 1 is billed by Glen Moray as the warehouse (and hence the label range) where experiments are carried out.  It’s perhaps grounded more in marketing than genuine reality these days, but it gives the distillery an avenue to release unique and limited-edition whiskies that can’t necessarily be sustained or part of wider releases and campaigns.

Glen Moray Peated Port Finish 11yo Distillery Edition, 56.3% ABV

Whisky & Wisdom first tried Glen Moray’s peated spirit as unaged new-make back in 2014, and it was ridiculously impressive and drinkable.  Not surprisingly, their subsequent peated releases are finding many fans amongst peat-lovers looking to step beyond Islay.  This particular expression spent eight years in ex-bourbon, then had a three year finish in ex-port casks.  The port adds sweetness and a “Smoky BBQ” note to proceedings; it’s a spicy and enjoyable dram.

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With the parent company needing peated whisky for its Label 5 and Glen Turner blends, it’s no surprise they started producing peated runs “in house”.  The first peated spirit was produced at Glen Moray in 2010, these days devotes 10 days each year for its peated campaign – currently accounting for around 3% of production.  The peat is sourced from Aberdeenshire and peated to 50ppm.

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Selection of bottles for the tasting

One of the hallmarks of Glen Moray’s whiskies for the last two decades is that they’ve generally always been very attractively priced, bordering on “cheap” – certainly when compared with some of the competition.  Some whisky enthusiasts mistakenly assume this to be a reflection of quality and choose to overlook the brand.  Such an attitude is both wide of the mark, and also denies them enjoying some very impressive malts.  Whilst some of the younger or NAS releases in the Classic range can seem lighter in character, they are no less well crafted from quality stock.  When asked about the public’s perception of Glen Moray’s pricing, Allan replied with a glint in his eye, “Don’t ask why Glen Moray’s whiskies are so affordable; ask why the other guys are so expensive!”   

So that’s the Glen Moray story and some insights into six of its whiskies.  If you’re on a whisky pilgrimage across Scotland and you’re in the neighbourhood, it’s a distillery well-worth popping into – particularly noting the distillery-exclusive whiskies available to visitors