Whether it stirs your soul or puts a blowtorch to it is to be seen. A whisky at 65% alcohol is not something to take lightly, and especially not as a first dram of the day. Of course, I didn’t, luckily the ABV was on the sample’s label.

Glen Moray is a bit of an interesting one. Depending on which way the coin falls it can be a lovely fruity dram with a lot of depth, but it can also be a fairly generic whisky that could be anything.

I know, in the past, that SMWS bottled some really good whiskies from Glen Moray, but that was years ago and those were 30+ years old. This is a very different beasty. Let’s find out.

Sniff:
Burnt toast with apricot jam. Roasty and fruity scents, so to say. A very gentle spirit that leaves all the room for the cask. A hint of cheese, and candle wax too.

Sip:
Well, that ABV sure is there, even after a couple of drams. Holy shit. Roasty notes with a lot of boozy heat, and some fairly generic fruitiness. Some sherry notes, slightly yeasty, but mostly some fruit.

Swallow:
The finish is gone almost immediately. The flavors linger at about 5% of their initial intensity.

Weird stuff. Probably a too active cask for longer maturation, but way too strong to be ‘tasty’. The alcohol trumps everything else that the cask didn’t take care of. As in, a lot of suppression of flavors happens, and there’s just not much happening except for heat.

80/100