Glen Moray. Not to be overshadowed by it's luxury LVMH sisters anymore!
This place is literally in Elgin proper, so if anyone is staying in Elgin or can get a bus to Elgin and doesn’t have a car, this is the distillery for you. Although not super well known, they are a great place to visit. They have unique bottlings and are doing things much differently than the rest of Speyside and the Scotch Malt Whisky world in general. Glen Moray changed hands in 2008 and is now owned by La Martiniquaise, which is a French Drinks company based in Paris. I had an amazing tour guide who was working there during his break from University. The best part was that his mother and family friend were on the tour as well. I am now friends with them both and hopefully will stay with her next time I’m back in Elgin!
The facility was just coming out of a silent season while I was there and a fire alarm actually started going off. We were all taken out of the still room when this happened, but nothing was running so I continued taking pictures. You will see in the pictures a few “work in progress” pieces of equipment. They currently run 11 months of un-peated malt barley and for that other month of the year they will run peated malt. I was also fortunate enough to see their new production facility. It was only realized and able to be used earlier this year. With the original distillery they were at about a 3.5 Million Liters a year capacity and now they can increase to a total of 6 million. About 2 million of this will go to their Glen Moray single malts and the other 3-4 million will still be sold off to blends and continue to support their Label 5 blend. Based on these additions, it looks like things are looking up for Glen Moray. Before the new ownership they were part of the Glenmorangie Group (LVMH) and were not always put as top priority. Now the new French company is putting a lot of investment into their future.
They have all stainless steel mash tuns and washbacks. In total there are three wash stills and six spirit stills all of varying ages due to the expansion. They work on a 50 hour fermentation period and run three hot waters through their mash. I was quite surprised by their stills. Due to the fresh fruit flavors known to Glen Moray, their stills weren’t as tall as I expected. Casks are bottled on site and their filling station can be seen below. Over 70% of their spirit is aged in bourbon barrels and the rest is mostly put into sherry. However there were a few Madeira and wine casks around, meaning that experimenting is happening in the warehouses. There are 8 dunnage and 4 racked warehouses on site.
Below is what I was able to try. I highly recommended Glen Moray Port Finish to my father. He has trouble nosing things and is still getting into whisky. The port finish one literally smells like juice, but don’t worry, the taste is completely different. This can at least not totally scare off a non-whisky drinker though. The price isn’t too scary either.
Glen Moray 12 Year
Holly’s Tasting Note..
Nose: Honey, peanut brittle, malt, toffee.
Palate: Peanut brittle, honey, spice and a real kick at the end.
Glen Moray Port Finish (No-Age Statement)- 7 years bourbon and 8 months port finish
Holly’s Tasting Note..
Nose: Sweet vanilla, fresh fruit, mango, ripe peach.
Palate: Older fruit, dried fruits, fig, cracker and dry biscuit.
Glen Moray Peated (No-Age Statement)
Holly’s Tasting Note..
Nose: Peat, berries, caramel ice cream- basically the “Turtle” ice cream from Brusters if you are from Rochester, NY.
Palate: Berry’s, vanilla ice cream, peat.
The peat was first on the nose and last on the palate for this one.
Next up is BenRiach..