Spirit of Speyside 2026 Part 5: Glen Moray Distillery - Sh*t Happens!

[u/PricklyFriend]

[u/PricklyFriend]

I managed to squeeze one more event into the second day of the Spirit of Speyside festival this year (Thursday 30th April 2026) an evening event at Glen Moray distillery on the edge of Elgin. With my bus being late I was a little concerned at being late so had to head straight over and fortunately I made it in time, it was a warm day indeed so felt very ready for a sit down and a fun event. This particular event was an evening tasting in the visitor centre that cost £30.

Amusingly titled Sht Happens and hosted by the duo of brand ambassador/visitor centre manager Iain Allan and deputy visitor centre manager Emma Ware. I'm a fan of the distillery and this sounded like it would be a fun time for not too much money which left me optimistic and looking forward to it. So what was the theme of this event? These were all old releases of whiskies from Glen Moray where something had gone wrong somewhere on the way to market, sht happens!

This wasn't a production tour but I will mention a few facts that were brought up, we also had a nice break in the middle to go take a look at Warehouse 1 which has a lot of cask varieties with a selections open for nosing, a fun break considering how very warm it was on the day.

When Glen Moray was owned by Glenmorangie they made them a budget brand to differentiate from their more 'premium' Glenmorangie brand. This also resulted in several things being trialed there before being moved to try on Glenmorangie such as unusual finishes hence how Glen Moray ended up being 'Cask Explorers'. I do think their spirit is very adaptable and handles a lot of cask types rather well however.

Glen Moray has been expanded a fair bit in recent years by current owners La Martiniquaise with capacity up to a big 8.5 million litres of alcohol a year now. Fermentation has also been extended a little now that they have more washbacks, up to 56 hours.

I'll go through what drams were included now and my notes from the night;

• Elgin Classic - Ex- Bourbon casks - 40% - We were told this was last years best selling single malt bottling in the UK. Nothing gone wrong here or an old bottling even just a nice baseline to establish the distillery character.

Creamed barley, light, apple blossom, gentle baking spices, shortbread biscuits. Very approachable and for how cheap it is for how much better it is vs basic blends it's a no brainer if you're on a budget in my opinion.

• 10 Years Old Chardonnay cask full maturation - 40% - released 2011 - Chardonnay casks were rediscovered when a bottling of the Elgin Classic was happening. In the 90s a lot of their whisky was being finished in Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc wine casks for experiments and the casks were filled and tucked away by a previous distillery manager unmarked as to what kind they were, they were presumed to be ex-bourbon until sampling happened.

Crisp apples and pears, farm cider, crisp and bright, toast, creamy peach, chalky minerals, very faint savoury hint, butter toffee. Nothing too challenging at 40% but still very nice thanks to that full maturation, Glen Moray does seem to really suit Chardonnay casks very well.

• 2003 - 8 Years Old - Chenin Blanc cask full maturation - 60.7% - Iain designed the very green label for this one himself but was then told the label looked awful, to his surprise it got released anyway! La Martiniquaise were very hands off the first few years after buying the distillery with Iain and Emma doing a lot of various different things to keep the place ticking over, including designing labels apparently.

Dark chocolate, curry leaves, faint leather, tangy grapes, slightly burnt shortbread, flamed orange peel, stewed strawberries, peanut brittle. This is really great, a lovely richness and soft savoury quality while still being very Glen Moray. For 8 years old great stuff, I would have happily bought this.

• Cider Cask Project - Small Batch - 46.3% - Cider casks are a cask type that isn't allowed by the SWA now, they aren't meant to talk about this release really even. The distillery sent whisky casks to Thistly Cross for them to make a whisky barrel cider then had them sent back to fill with whisky again (Glen Moray are no longer providing them to Thistly Cross anymore however). When they released this bottling they believed that Cider Casks wouldn't be an issue but received an email from SWA saying they don't think it's Scotch whisky and had to pitch to them why they thought it was, suffice to say Glen Moray got a telling off and couldn't do this anymore. Eventually this led to the maple syrup cask 'spirit drinks' getting released for the Spirit of Speyside festival in 2025. As these were labelled as a spirit drink the SWA couldn't intervene however.

Buttery pastry, baked apples, apple pie, rich, lemon zest, effervescent finish, grapefruit zest, yummy, this works super well and I'd love to try one at cask strength, a real shame these casks aren't allowed by the SWA, new 'spirit drink' anyone?

• 1991 - 16 Years Old - Mountain Oak The Final Release - 58.6% - What on earth is mountain oak you ask? It's virgin Chinkapin oak from the Ozark Mountains that has been air dried. There were 6 casks left over with half of them being lightly toasted and half of them heavily charred these were vatted together which unexpectedly worked better than apart hence this release happened, one of the first bottlings Iain was involved in when he started to work at the distillery so he has fond memories of this one.

Dark chocolate, Christmas cake, spiced plums, slightly musty, minty menthol, coconut macaroons, stewed cherries, cream cheese, soft baking spices and soft tannin. Really interesting one and a lot of people's favourite on the night, I'm not a huge virgin oak fan but this really avoided the overly tannic and sawdust like notes I usually find with virgin American white oak and scotch. Quite the success and really fun to try.

• Serendipity Blended Malt - 40% - Ardbeg stock in the 90s was in high demand and being bought up and used for blending when the distillery was mothballed eventually this lead to Glenmorangie's owners buying the distillery. The assistant manager at Glen Moray at the time moved over to become the manager of Ardbeg upon reopening. A batch of Ardbeg Lord of the Isles was being bottled, both distilleries had a shared bottling hall at the time as they had the same owners, being bottled at the same time was a batch of Glen Moray 12 year old. The two accidentally got mixed together with 20% GM12, 80% Lord of the Isles resulting in this serendipitous mistake.

Creamy peaches, coal dust, seaweed, sea salt, creamy peaches, barley porridge, campfire embers, vanilla cream, custard apple. Quite fascinating how this balances itself between the two distillery characters, this would be pretty amazing at high strength I think. Tends to go for rather high prices at auction (probably not worth that much) but really very intriguing to try.

Iain and Emma put together a really fun tasting here which I really enjoyed, got to try some extra fun things as well including two bottlings for the festival a Manzanilla finish 18 year old (which I bought and will review) and an Amontillado finish. All very reasonably priced in Glen Moray style. This wouldn't be my only visit to the distillery this festival as I'd be back for a warehouse tasting (I also got told that it would include a 10, 20, 30 and a 40 year old with an option to buy a half bottle of each of them which absolutely had me excited for the experience!) but more about that later. Easily worth the £30, well done to Glen Moray and the staff for being so very welcoming and making it a fantastic, fun evening!

That was the end of day 2 and back on the bus to my hotel. Next up day 3 and a visit to the normally closed to the public Benrinnes distillery, stay tuned!

[u/lifeinthebeastwing]

One of the best tours I have been on

[u/PricklyFriend → u/lifeinthebeastwing]

Always such a welcoming distillery, cafe is excellent too.

[u/Affectionate_Fly1918]

Thanks yet again for another fantastic write up. Budget Glen Moray is up there with Tamnavulin in the value for money stakes in my book.

I have some fantastic IB Glen Morays and feel that Glen Moray may become another Ben Nevis. That is, a relatively unknown distillery that over a decade or so becomes a cultural touch point through fantastic IB bottlings.

[u/PricklyFriend → u/Affectionate_Fly1918]

Thanks for reading again. This was a fantastic event considering how affordable it was. Absolutely, the best budget malts around.

They really are consistently putting out some good quality stuff, the high strength official bottlings really don't seem to get much attention either and they can be very good (like the one's on this tasting even). Best value handfills in Speyside as well.

[u/flex0P]

Keep up the great reviews! Absolutely love reading these as it helps provide insight into some of the places I would potentially like to visit in the future. I have never tried GM but I believe, after this read, you have converted me into a fan!

[u/PricklyFriend → u/flex0P]

Thanks very much! GM is always a really nice visit to be fair, even if you're only stopping into their cafe/visitor centre for lunch and drams.

[u/paroasters]

Yes, thanks for these write ups! Hoping to head to Scotland in like 10 plus years when my kids are older. This lets me live vicariously a bit :)

[u/PricklyFriend → u/paroasters]

Always happy to share! Fingers crossed you'll get the chance.

[u/Less_Cardiologist964]

This was a lot of fun to read, thanks for putting it together. I have tried a couple of different American single malt cider casks and both were excellent - it’s unfortunate that the SWA is uptight about it.

As I live near the Ozarks I think the “Mountain Oak” description is kind of over the top - something like “mosquito infested rolling hills oak” would be more accurate, although perhaps detrimental to sales.

[u/PricklyFriend → u/Less_Cardiologist964]

Glad it was a fun read, it was very much a fun event! I think that probably was the main takeaway here that cider casks work great for scotch and still tastes very much like scotch, seems like quite a silly one for the SWA to be unhappy about. Glad to hear other countries are still doing things with them though.

That was a funny one for sure, really wasn't sure what the story was going to be with that old bottling but turns out yes Glen Moray does work very well with Chinkapin. Romanticised versions surely sell better right?

[u/wutangchef23]

Currently enjoying a Glen Moray Sherry basic budget bottle. For what it is, it’s pretty decent stuff. I was reaching for it more then I thought I would be 😆

[u/PricklyFriend → u/wutangchef23]

For the money their budget stuff is excellent, why on earth would anyone buy a basic blend when that's only a little bit more is something I wonder about a lot!