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Glen Moray 12yo
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
£22
$34.99 (USD)
Built in 1897 out of the old West Brewery, Glen Moray has been a 4 still workhorse for blended whiskies for decades. Macdonald and Muir, later to become Glenmorangie plc (1996), purchased Glen Moray in 1920 and launched it as a single malt in the 1960s. In 1999, the owners, no-doubt under the guidance of Dr. Bill Lumsden, began using wine casks to 'finish' the whiskies.
When I lived in Scotland, Glen Moray was often the whisky one would find in Scotmid, Sainsbury or Tesco on offer for something silly like £13. Never disappointed, I confess to encouraging the supermarket slashing for which the Glenmorangie company (then owners of Glen Moray) was widely criticised.
After Glenmorangie's decision to stop business in the blended scotch market and focus on Ardbeg and Glenmornagie, Glen Moray's future was unknown. Sold in Spetember 2008 to French company La Martiniquaise, many hope that Glen Moray can get the exposure, and credit, it has long been due. To my mind, there are several whiskies on the market that sell for twice as much money that are half as good. To date, arguably the closest Glen Moray came to respect in the eyes of whisky snobs was as the "oops!" ingredient in Serendipity. Let's hope the new owners can show the world what Glen Moray is more than a £13 sale item.
TASTING NOTES:
Jammy, fruity, and sweet. Malty notes ,fudge, and honey. Starchy potato aromas and a mild perfume of vanilla and cloves, as well.
Malty and fruity notes gently present themselves through an over all sweet, oaky flavour. Parsley, toffee and some floral notes emerge with a licorice and wood finish.
SUMMARY:
Nothing earth shattering here, but an easy, balanced, classic Speyside-style whisky that is thoroughly enjoyable and remarkably under-appreciated. Find some? Buy some. Guilt-free dramming that pleases both the palate and the wallet.
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Ardbeg Serendipity
Supreme Blended(Vatted) Malt Scotch Whisky
40% abv
£35 (and rising)
Ah, the end of the third week of this malt mission and I can see at least 3 more weeks coming off of that shelf. Woo-hoo! Thanks for reading.
It has been a week of vatted malts from Compass Box, and seems appropriate to finish with a critically acclaimed and currently VERY hard to find bottling from Glenmorangie plc. Royal Mile Whiskies' website already gives this malt 'dearly departed' status.
Glenmorangie owns Ardbeg and Glen Moray, and the Bailie Nichol Jarvie blend. They are all owned by Moet Hennesey/Louis Vuitton. STYLISH!!! This means the product launches have stepped up a notch, d'accord? It also means they use the same bottling plant, which is necessary to understand if we are to believe the following.
Ardbeg Serendipity is, as the story goes, the result of a most serendipitous accident. Whisky is dumped from casks into tanks for bottling. There was apparently some Glen Moray 1992(12 yr old) still in the tank when they began dumping OLD (I have heard everything from 20-30 year old, I have heard 1977, I have heard older. Possible it was a bunch of underproof aged casks, but who knows?) Ardbeg into the vatting tank. Oops. Result is 20% Glen Moray 12yo and 80% OLD Ardbeg.
Kristin is NUTS for the stuff and has been through 3 bottles since the beginning of November. Okay, I helped.
TASTING NOTES:
Sweetness comes off first, bourbony vanilla. Then comes the dirtiness. Peat, feet, sweat, diapers/nappies. Wet stone(?), moss, earth. Still sweet, creamy (Coffee Mate?) and these flavours arrive together, beautifully united rather than on two separate planes, which is unexpected.
Vanilla, peat and chocolate. Smoking while changing a diaper (like in the good ole days... can you imagine seeing that today? we would all turn up our noses, no doubt...). Baby powder, and skin. Briliant mouthfeel and the initial attack of flavour is SO pleasant, like a bubble popping that contained essence of sweet cakes, vanilla, fire and flatulence(okay, maybe not so pleasant, but great in context of this whisky's character).
This stuff isn't pretty, but it is pretty drinkable.
ps. About 5 minutes later I had a nasty metallic and chlorine like taste in my mouth.
SUMMARY:
The Malt Maniacs felt that this could "invoke the wrath of anoraks worldwide", but I find that absolutely ridiculous. I guess it is possible if by 'anorak' they mean wealthy whisky collecting Europeans with "doubtful gaze" set as their default perception. But then, who cares. Those customers already have MANY niche products geared for them(the link is but one example). Serendipity is not one of them, so leave it to those of us who are, what fancy term shall I use...aha! 'Skint whisky lovers.' (Besides, anoraks are supposed to be interested in obscure things that are terminally unfashionable. With whisky, at least for right now, that is certainly not the case.)
Serendipity is tasty, tasty whisky. I would compare it to yesterday's Compass Box only to call Serendipity the ugly older sibling to the kinder more sophisticated Eleuthera. But Serendipity is a great whisky and, as I have said before, the most guilt free way to quaff very old Ardbeg. Although with its limited availability, those guilt-free days are numbered.
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