Unlike previous years, my wife’s aunt and uncle joined us on our Speyside trip, which meant a bigger AirBnB was in order. Instead of our regular base in Aberlour, this time we stayed near Elgin, and so our closest distilleries were Benriach and Glen Moray. I had visited both in the past without doing a tour, so it was time to put that right this year. I particularly looked forward to Benriach, given the generosity and hospitality that were on display two years ago.
We arrived on Sunday evening after our stop at Deanston on the way up, and the Glen Moray tour was our main activity on Monday after a stroll around the Glen Grant gardens in the morning.
Before we get into the tour, some background information about my experiences with Glen Moray. Our first visit was in 2022, and in many ways it was typical of our trip at the time: I was offered samples of their hand-fills, and one of them impressed me enough to buy. Last year, however, was different: I had the same plan in mind, but when I asked if I could try before I buy, the answer was a flat-out ‘no’ before being told I had to buy a tasting flight. Fair enough, I guess – maybe there had been too many drunk visitors trying to treat the place as a free bar, so I paid for the three hand-fills. A different member of staff (more helpful this time) gave me a brief description of each one and told me that I could also take them home in sample bottles if I wanted to leave some for later.
After trying the first two (I particularly liked the 2006 refill Oloroso), I asked for a sample bottle to take the last one home, and was told I needed to buy a pack of three for £3. I explained I only needed the one to take the last whisky home, and again was told I had to buy it for £1. Now, I’m not one to argue about one pound (and in the end I was given the bottle anyway after my surprised look), but that did seem pretty stingy by Glen Moray given that there was no mention I had to buy the sample bottle when it was brought up by the lady who served me. This was in stark contrast to the 2022 visit when I was offered samples of all three casks, which led to me buying a bottle. I was ready to bottle the 2006 Oloroso this time, but ended up just leaving after the unnecessary back-and-forth about the sample bottle.
Even though the overall experience fell short compared to the generosity of other distilleries during our Speyside trips, I’m not here to make a mountain out of a molehill: maybe I caught them on a bad day, so I wanted to see what the tour would offer. I opted for the intermediate Heritage Tour – £40 for a more in-depth tour than the basic one, followed by a tasting of three whiskies. I say ‘£40’ because that’s what the website said – but after I selected the date and time and clicked to book, the cost had risen to £42 after the ticket provider fee. Sadly this seemed in line with my experience last year when I got the impression that they were going out of their way to charge me for every little thing – obviously this is the ticket provider fee so it’s slightly different, but again: it’s not about the money, it’s about transparency – just mention £42 up front and there would be no issues. Indeed, fortunately someone must have made a note of that since my booking because I see now the prices include the fee.
So, enough of the mini-rant/intro, let’s see if Glen Moray redeemed themselves this time. The tour was led by Emma, and before she started she asked how many of us had been to multiple distilleries – as it turned out, all of us apart from my uncle, who up to that point had only been to Deanston the day before, raised our hands. As a result, Emma tailored the tour accordingly, with most of the focus being on the differences ever since La Martiniquaise took over Glen Moray in the late 2000s, and not much on the process.
The main takeaway from this was that it was very difficult for Glen Moray to expand, given that the town of Elgin had grown around the distillery since the time it was first established in 1897. Even by distillery standards, the vibe is particularly industrial, as you can see in the photos above and below.
The still room above was particularly hot, so at this point Emma took us to the air-conditioned control room (for lack of a better term, not sure what the official name is) where the computers were. That’s right, the process is controlled by customised software – and why not? This was the first time I’ve been in a tour that hasn’t tried to hide the degree of automation – not all distilleries are like Deanston and Knockdhu which are still old-fashioned in their process. We didn’t take photos of the computers since it seemed bad form to publicise exactly how Glen Moray operate the stills in minute detail.
The tour concluded with a visit to the dunnage-style Warehouse 1. What immediately struck me was that it was positively temperatate compared to the consistently cool warehouses you encounter elsewhere, such as Deanston the day before for instance. This is because of the roof, seen below, which retains a lot more heat then usual:
After the tour, the tasting was in Glen Moray House (pictured at the top of the report), which was a relief since the cafe, where they hold the tastings for the basic tour, can get chaotic at the best of times. Since this was the Heritage Tour, the whiskies on offer were from the Heritage range – the 15 year-old, which is a marriage of Bourbon and Oloroso matured Glen Moray, the exclusively first-fill Bourbon 18 year-old, and the Port-finished 21 year-old. A nice variety, then, although truth be told other distilleries, such as Benriach for example, offer more drams (and more exclusive ones too) for around the same price.
The pick of the bunch was the 18 year-old, of which I already have a bottle at home. While the 15 is bottled at 40%, the 18 is 47.2% and non-chill filtered, and is packed with ripe fresh fruit flavours and the vanilla you’d expect from Bourbon maturation. The 21 is also bottled at a higher strength (at a Distell-esque 46.3%), and spent its final two years in Port casks. The flavour profile here is much darker, with currants and dark chocolate, along with a combination of tannic notes that I don’t always get along with. Despite the low strength, the 15 is also very good – there’s certainly enough flavour and only the development and finish are a bit light, but as a daily sipper it’s perfect.
At the end of the tasting, Emma also showed us this archive book below, which contains records dating back all the way to 1897:
As another visitor and I were chatting in the shop afterwards, Emma also gave us samples of one of the hand-fills they had on offer (a 2008 Manzanilla cask), which was very good indeed. So, had Glen Moray redeemed themselves with this tour and tasting? Up to that point, certainly – the tour was good, especially since Emma had worked there for more than a decade and was an engaging host. Then my uncle, a few minutes later, asked the person behind the bar for the same sample. ‘No’, he was told. ‘We’ve run out’. Bemused, he returned to the table where we were having lunch. As it happened, I did see Emma walking by very soon after and she indeed presented him with a dram of the whisky that had most definitely not run out.
So close, Glen Moray, so close.
The Daily Dram 