Wine cask time in the form of 14 year old Glen Moray that’s been matured in a refill Chardonnary barrique. Spicy & Dry profile.
Nose: Perfumed and spicy. Heavy cloves, pepper, and anise are joined by sandalwood, cut blooms and potpourri. There’s a good hint of cigar box here – musty and leafy. Water is very reductive taking away much of the spice and floral aromas and replacing them with berry fruits and gummi sweets.
Taste: Sharp and earthy. Moss and damp earthiness meet dusty cupboards and cardboard. There’s some sharpness here which I suspect is the Chardonnay influence, but it comes across more akin to grappa and very tart grapes. There’s some roasted flavours in the mix here too – cornflakes and lightly toasted bread. Dilution greatly improves the fruit intensity offering stewed pineapples in particular.
Finish: Medium in length, but quite astringent and fairly tannic too.
Wine maturation is often hit or miss for my tastes and this unfortunately is a bit of a miss (which is a touch sad as the official Glen Moray 10 year old Chardonnay Cask works fairly well). Flavours seem a little higgledy piggledy between the nose and palate and there’s quite a lot of bitterness and heavy tannins in play too.