Glen Moray Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1897 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

We tasted this outside on a cold winter's evening, right in front of St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh. We recorded what we thought of it by way of a phone voice recorder, so the notes here are half flavours picked up from the recording, and half just a stream of consciousness...

Light and cressy, the character of the wine is well into the character of the whisky. Distant and floral. Oaky, similar to a virgin oak. "Nosing is hard in the cold air". Chocolately, cheap aftershave, wee bit of honey. "Hamish is an Arsehole" should be sung, with the bagpipes in the background (I don't think this is a pre-coined song). Admittedly, this tasting wasn't super structured, so that's all of the noses, but lots listed below will fit into the 'all' category.

Parma violets like crazy, tangy sourness, unusual taste. Pear drops, drinkable, "light" (Iain laughs, remnants of a distant private joke – incidentally, that's not a bad description of this whisky.) We had two Alis at the tasting, and we all laughed at "female Ali" not being a proper differential, so we go with 'Ali Girl'... Ali Boy then tells a nice anecdote about him and Heather being referred to as 'ladies' by the waiter in the Karma Sutra (the restaurant, not the actual book). A bit like a watery Chardonnay (over-heard and agreed upon). Elderflowery. "Hamish, you use Aussie shampoo?! That's like 10 pound a pop!".

"Quercus Alba!", says Ali Boy. Phil looks impressed, "ohhh hello! Someone did their homework!". Quite light... "it's not an unpleasant thing to put in your mouth though, right?". [bagpipes are drowning us out...] Phil describes bagpipes as "an audible version of a headache". Ooga booga booga! Tastes like when you're making a fruit pie and the sugar or fruit caramelises on the outside of the pie crust. Bit unusual, bit spicy. Yeah yeah yeah, totally. It's vegetarian chardonnay, as well. Which is good, because normally wine is chock full of meat products.

On the finish, stewed sulatanas / fruits of some sort. Grassy out of 10. Medium finish. Short finish. Short. Dry finish, seconded. Fruity. Midget gems. Pears in it somewhere, but confirmed around the time of the finish. Creamy. "Can I have a receipt?". Giving it 0.1 of a break for being unusual. Hard to be clinical about scoring outside the unusual circumstance. "Not a massive fan, but I want to know why."

"If we see the popo, what do we do?"
  – "The POPE ?!"

To get an idea of the 'ambient' bagpipes to be found in central Edinburgh, listen to some of our live review. The ambient chatter and 'gentle' tones made me think a bit of...

Prediction Game
We tasted this blind, with everyone trying to guess its age and cost. The average age guessed was 14 (8-25) and average cost was £45.75 (£36.75-£83). That's a bit older and a fair bit pricier than it was, but not bad.

~£26 (70cl)

WhiskyBase: Glen Moray 10yo Chardonnay   |   http://www.whiskybase.com/whisky/25333/glen-m

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

67 / 100