Ah, Glen Moray! Previously a distillery only for "those in the know," it's rapidly becoming pretty well-known maker... or at least, those in the know has expanded dramatically. Maybe both. When I first joined the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, I barely knew them from one or two very subpar official bottlings at the larger retail markets.
Some of the best single cask scotches I've had as a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society are from Glen Moray - another distillery who has lackluster (severely so) distillery bottlings but incredibly good independently bottled varities.
While the official distillery releases are rather blandly sweet and have mostly little depth - at least the ones I've had - nearly every independent bottle I've had has been intensely rich (albeit also sweet) and full of complexity. So when I saw this 15 year bottling from Berry Brothers and Rudd, temptation gave way.
The end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 have both been very slow in terms of my whisky adventure: I've almost exclusively been draining old stocks, and drinking a lot more wine and beer and other spirits. I do have about 4-5 bottles to post soon, but the major update relates to an event for independent bottler Single Cask Nation that I attended on February 17th at the Jack Rose Saloon.
Single Cask Nation, formerly J&J Spirits, is the brainchild of Jason Johnstone-Yellin and Joshua Hatton, and renowned in the Scotch single malt world as the bottlers of some truly outstanding drams. Recently they sold the company to Artisanal Spirits, the parent company that owns the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and JG Thompson. Jason and Josh will still be making the picks, and directing the show, but there will likely be some unusual repercussions down the road.
This event at Jack Rose (and thanks to Bill Thomas, the owner, for facilitating this!) featured Josh and Jason presenting six of the earliest and best whiskies they've ever bottled. Here is the lineup, plus some tasting notes:
-12 year Glen Moray: From the second outturn ever back in 2012: reminiscent of the SMWS Glen Morays in that it has tons of complex sugar cookie and custard notes, with some herbs and berries mixed in. Rich stuff, almost like a heady cognac.
-13 year Cooley: one of only a few Irish whisky releases they've had - they said there is a surprisingly weak market for independently bottled Irish stuff.
To demonstrate, they asked for any diehard Irish whisky fans to raise their hands; out of 42 attendees, only 2 did. This whisky, finished in refill Oloroso, is full of tropical fruits and brown sugar, almond, maple, and is a little musty. Very long finish. Best part was a truly velvety mouthfeel.
-12 year Arran (Pinot cask): The story told about this bottle was that Jason grew up in Ayrshire, just over the Firth of Clyde from Arran, and when they were launching Single Cask Nation, the Arran distillery called them and said something akin to "we want to be for you what Glenfarclas is to the SMWS" ... so they went and tried a few Pinot cask-aged Arrans, and were blown away.
Normally, they said, they really dislike wine casks - they said it almost always changes the core spirit in a fundamental way - but these were perfect marriages. They bought this one, the sixth (?) cask.
Huge nose on it: dry red wine, yeast, grape skins, very floral, strong malt backbone, with a rather shy palate that eventually builds into beautiful stone fruit and rich, caramel-ish toasted oak. Lovely and surprisingly subtle, supple stuff.
-Dalmore 12 year (PX sherry): Jason said out of the 250 bottles they've released, this is his least favorite - he said it's too unidimensional for him. Josh noted in reply that it remains one of the whiskies they get asked about the most.
It's an insane grape bomb - almost like a solera brandy: red grapes, grape Nerds, wet shag tobacco, PX sherry for days. Josh half-joked that there was still a gallon or two of PX sherry still in the cask and it was "cloudy as hell." Just a rich, wild grape explosion. Both Josh and Jason sort of implied that Dalmore has a spirit on the weaker side that requires a strong cask to steer it in a good direction.
-Benriach 17 year (Peated): This was actually my least favorite of the night - I got burnt popcorn, moss, dead leaves, very "wet forest floor" ... the palate was a bit bigger, with peat, apple core, burnt wood, vanilla, iodine, earth, tree bark. Adding water added menthol cigarettes, orchard fruit, dunnage warehouse, burnt toast. Melon, pear, tea on the finish, which was the best part. Super complex, but not attractive for me. Really funky and unusual, though.
-Josh strongly suggested keeping an eye on the Infrequent Flyers Bottling Company, which was started by the owner of BenRiach (Alisdair Walker); although it hasn't come to the USA yet, hopefully it will. He said everything he's tried from them has been stellar. He also expressed wry frustration that when Alisdair Walker decided to start a bottling company, he simultaneously stopped selling his best casks.
-Laphroaig 6 yr - Holy moses, what a nose on this thing. Reminds me of the Jack Rose single cask Laphroaig pick from last year: VERY potent lemon peel, lime, lime zest, ash, earth, smoke, salt, yet clean as hell, layered, and refined. Palate followed the nose and added white wine, lime soda, sand (!), and rubber/iodine. Finish was, weirdly, like a baguette with lemon juice, burned in the oven. Some meat, like pork shoulder. Chocolate, tea, salmon, charcoal, just layers on layers. Very impressive.
-Then, a surprise final dram: A 14 year Glen Grant, matured in sherry. Nose was like candy - Starburst, sour fruit, vanilla exstract, some soft leather, malt, old oak. Very well balanced. Berries and cream on the palate, bright cherry like Luxardo, caramel, mik chocolate, etc.
They ended with a discussion of what things will look like now that Artisinal Spirits owns them. They said they will still be running the SCN show and making the picks, but they will have additional avenues to release bottles now (they estimate 80 a year). They really hope they don't end up in competition with SMWS for any particular cask, and don't know what would happen if that comes up. They noted there are 20,000 casks on the market at any given time, so the chances are low. They also note that their preferences don't overlap too much with SMWS except in a few limited cases.
Basically it sounded like selling to Artisinal Spirits stabilized both companies - it provided a steady infusion of invested capital for SCN, and provides a wide array of new hand-picked spirits for Artisinal. There was a question about whether SMWS would push out some of their casks through SCN, which they said wasn't the plan unless the cask was exceptional. Etc. etc.
-They also noted their favorite upcoming release for 2024 is a 25 year Ardmore (!), and to jump on it when it drops because it's the best Ardmore they've ever had. So, there's that.
***
The fifth of nine whiskies at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") June 2022 Outturn tasting at the Jack Rose Saloon on Sunday, June 5th. I love a good Glen Moray, which is known for delectable and rather sweet offerings. This has a very unusual two-year shaved/toasted/rechar ex-first-fill Pedro Ximenez sherry cask finish after a dozen years in ex-bourbon, and was a big winner among all the conversations I overheard at the event.
I attended the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") March Outturn preview tasting at the Jack Rose Saloon here in Washington DC last night - it was an interesting experience. They gave us all small pours (~.5-1 oz) of the six casks being released, and the entire evening was structured as a guessing game. Our host was Mike Hong, who was weirdly familiar to me, but perhaps I just know from seeing him at a bar here and there. He did a good job of engaging people and moving the night along from cask to cask.
Glen Moray is one of those distilleries I first encountered in turbocharged single cask independent bottles - they are rich and sweet and full of interesting flavors, in that setting. But their official bottlings mostly seemed geared at the lower end of the market, and this Port Cask Finish bottling was only $28 - half the cost of most other standard bottles. Thanks to Rob Martin for this delicious sample!
For anyone wondering, "xanthous" is an adjective referring to something yellow in color, usually a particular mustardy golden/red/auburn/brownish shade of yellow. Video game fans will recognize the term from the Dark Souls games, where there is a set of clothing that is xanthous-colored (and is so named).
I haven't had a bottle of Glen Moray in a while, and decided it was time to come back and revisit this excellent distillery whose bottles I have so enjoyed in the past.
Another Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) bottling of a rather underrated distillery, Glen Moray. The last bottle I had was most interesting, even if it wasn't quite my cup of tea (or scones, as the case may be). But this one got rave reviews during the release video (shout out to Jenna Elie), and I'm super curious. It's aged 14 years in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead, and bottled at 53.7% ABV. Nicknamed "Waffle Stacking Ecstasy." Let's see what Glen Moray and SMWS have for us today:
At the same Scotch tasting where I had my beloved Tomintoul, I also had a delightful 9 year Glen Moray that was my girlfriend's favorite - full of waxy oranges and delicious tea notes. So I was delighted to find that the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) featured several offerings from Glen Moray. I chose the one coded 35.266, named "Traditional Butterscotch Fudge," and aged for 12 years in first-fill bourbon barrel. No coloring, no filtering. Bottled at 57.4% ABV.
