Glen Moray Heritage 21yo Portwood Finish...

Glen Moray Heritage 21yo Portwood Finish (46.3%): And here is the grand finale of the Glen Moray week on tire-bouchon: The whisky on my desk today is not from the Classic series like the four whiskies I reviewed earlier this week but from their Heritage series and it is the oldest bottling in that collection. It spent most of its life in ex-Bourbon barrels before being racked into ex-Port wine casks for an additional two years. It is non-chill filtered unlike the whiskies in the Classic series and bottled at 46.3% abv.

Color: Medium amber, wildflower honey color with a bright (and beautiful) orange shine and a thin but very distinct line of tiny teardrops around the glass turning into thin and very slow moving legs.

Nose: Orange blossom honey, a huge pavlova topped with freshly sliced stone fruits: Peaches, apricots, black plums and nectarines. Mouth watering indeed... Sweet pastries: Mille-feuille, cream puffs and fruit tart slices. Orange wedges, caramel brittles and vanilla.

Palate: Textured, warming and sweet... Honey, sultanas and fruit cake. Rum & raisin ice cream, prunes and oatmeal cookies. A real treat for whisky lovers who like their whisky sweet: Orange marmalade, cinnamon and milk chocolate.

Finish: Medium long and warming with candied orange peels, allspice and nutmeg.

Overall: First of all it's impossible not to like this whisky: It's rich, warming, full of fruits, honey and oozing caramel. Extremely pleasing to sip by its own but I can totally see how easy it can be paired with desserts and cigars. It's reasonably priced, not very edgy nor layered but definitely a crowd pleaser... Having said that I would never ever guess this as an ex-Port cask finished whisky though. For my two cents it noses and tastes exactly like a very well executed ex-Sherry cask single malt Scotch. The only reason I am saying this is because there are so many people out there extremely biased against Port finished whiskies who would never even give this whisky a chance. If you are reading this and if you like your old sherried whiskies like Balvenie, Glendronach or GlenAllachie this expression is right up your alley. In the end thanks to Koray Kaan Ozdemir a.k.a. Whisky Monster who is the US Portfolio Ambassador for 375 Park Avenue Spirits for generously supplying all these Glen Moray samples and making this week possible.

Price: $200

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