Glen Moray 25 Years Old forms part of the premium Elgin Heritage Collection by the Speyside distillery of Glen Moray. The collection is filled with a range of Speyside style whiskies, all featuring age statements, that showcases different styles of maturing and marrying of casks. This 15 years old marries whisky matured in two different cask types – half spending it’s life in ex-bourbon American oak (embodying Glen Moray’s classic style) and the other half from Oloroso Sherry casks (adding richer spice character). bottled at 40% ABV and selling for £55-65 for a 70cl bottle.
The Glen Moray distillery is located on the outskirts of the city of Elgin, next to the River Lossie. The distillery started life as the West Brewery in 1828 and was later converted to become a whisky distillery in 1897. After a slightly chequered early history it is currently owned by the French drinks company La Martiniquaise, who took control in 2008 after buying the distillery from Moet Hennessey.
La Martiniquaise then embarked on a massive expansion programme, which is now complete and has resulted in an annual production capacity of six million litres. This now makes Glen Moray one of the larger distilleries in Speyside. The whisky produced Glen Moray is used for a number of La Martiniquaise’s own blended whiskies, namely Label 5 and Glen Turner, as well as this expanded range of single malts.
The Elgin Heritage Collection are available globally through specialist whisky retailers. They join and the non-age statement Elgin Classic Collection, which are available through supermarket and off license channels and the Warehouse 1 Collection that features small batch whiskies that are the result of experiments and cask adventures.
Our Tasting Notes
On the nose this feels immediately richer and bold. There are plenty of dried fruit aromas, especially raisins and sultanas, along with some bitter chocolate and candied orange.
On the palate this whisky has an instant hit of bitter oranges and dark chocolate with an underlying note of robust maltiness. Then come further notes of brown sugar, toffee and caramel, along with roasted/burnt coffee beans and some background molasses or treacle. There are also hints of ginger cake, cinnamon and liquorice. The robust maltiness and earlier bitter notes seem to become more influential with time and lead in to the finish, which seems a little short given the age and richness of the whisky.
What’s The Verdict?
This 15 years old sits in the Heritage range as the bold spicy one and it lives up to that reputation. It displays what we would define as classic sherried Speyside whisky characters in abundance. Plus it is remarkably well priced for such a well constructed 15 year old whisky.
