Review by: The Muskox
I’m going to be honest here – I completely forgot that I tried this whisky. I must have tasted it before I left for my work trip 3 weeks ago, and wrote up this review then… I opened up my computer today and found this already-completed review just sitting here.
The last Sauternes-matured Glen Moray I tasted was excellent, let’s see if this somewhat-younger UK Exclusive bottling was up to that standard.
Distillery: Glen Moray.
Bottler: Official bottling.
Region: Speyside.
ABV: 59.6%, cask strength.
Age: 14 years old. Distilled 08/29/2006. Bottled 09/10/2020.
Cask type: Sauternes casks.
Color: No colour added, un-chillfiltered.
Nose: Tart dark winey fruit, darker than I expected. Big fig (OOOOOOOO!), cherry soda, red apples, maple taffy. Fresh wood – pencils, sawn logs, walnut. Yeasty malt and dried ginger. A little dirty, too, as there’s a bit of sulfur. Pouring a little more into the glass, I’m now getting a bit of a tropical note and some browned butter. Finally, after sitting with this for an hour, there’s a little bit of honey.
Palate: Thick oily texture. Tart orchard fruit and sulfur up front, along with some warm shortbread and preserved citrus peels. Dirty malt and moderate sulfur on the development, kind of cooked-cabbage-y. Caramel chocolates and key lime pie. Raspberry jam and salted butter on toast.
Finish: Honey-drizzled peach, tart rhubarb, blackberry. Vanilla crème and salted caramel. Earthy and sufurous.
Alternate SMWS bottling name: “Dirt Snapple”
Notes: Not great, but not only because of the sulfur. This is easily the least Sauternes-y Sauternes-cask whisky I’ve ever had. The golden flood of honey I love in Sauternes-matured whiskies is reduced to a slow trickle. It comes across more like a very sweet sherry cask. Aside from that, it’s not that sulfury, the mouthfeel is nice, and there are some good flavours in here. Looking at this whisky’s reviews on Whiskybase, the high average score belies the attestations of sulfur in the written reviews. The people who enjoyed it claimed to be big fans of very dirty wine notes, which I am certainly not. For me, it’s almost a good whisky, but it’s just not quite there.
Final Score: 69.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 