Wait, what is Warehouse 1?
Okay, I might be getting ahead of myself. We’re diving into Glen Moray because I realised it’s been a few years since I’ve reviewed them, had some samples around, and wondered how I feel about them. I do similar things with different foods and chain restaurants, all to question what I think I know in order to try and grow as a person.
What are we up to? Glen Moray 14 2006 Warehouse 1, which leads us to: What does that mean? From the website, the Warehouse 1 collection is
the result of experiments and cask adventures from behind the doors of our most famous warehouse.
So Glen Moray is testing things out, they are taking multiple casks and releasing them in the UK under the name “Warehouse 1” when it’s an experiment. Think the MP3 collection from Bruichladdich or every-single brewery exclusive beer you’ve ever bought (though those are typically mistakes that are still potable).
What was the experiment here? From the look, a sampling of the distillate was distilled in August 2006, dumped it into 5 Sauternes casks, and then waited, vatting as they went to eventually release a cask strength limited run of 1.2k bottles, give or take, only to the UK.
Was it worth it? Did the experiment bear fruit? Let’s see, shall we?
Price: € 180
Region: Speyside
Vintage: August 29, 2006
Bottled: September 10, 2020
Cask type: Sauternes Casks
Number of bottles: 1,248
Abv: 59.6%
Bottled for: UK Exclusive
Colour: 10YR 5/8
Nose: Candied grapefruit, peanut butter, butter, chemical citrus
Tart, good amount of sugar, some nuttiness. I should probably say now that I don’t go looking for Sauternes casks. Not really my thing unless they are very good casks and not a finish. Well this is matured, but I’m more so getting that super sweet and nutty aspect that I associate with Glen Moray.
Granted I do find citrus and nuttiness from Sauternes, but it doesn’t come off that quickly here. It took a long time to draw out the fakest of citrus. So far it’s closer to the last Glen Moray, also a cask strength version.
Taste: Nut butter, caramel, brine, banana
Very nutty and fatty. Not as overtly sweet as the last one, however I don’t think that exists outside sugar plantations. Still funky, fruity, and a simple brine note. The fattiness and nuttiness take over, like most of us once 35 hits.
Finish: Old plum, mineral, cinnamon, salty peanuts, ginger
Tart, some more salt, and some extra heat that jumps between “nice spice” and “owe, put this back until it’s good”. And yes, I realise this is wandering into the “hazmat” levels of abv, but even when I added a good amount of water (think 2 tablespoons) it still persisted.
Conclusion: Very nutty, quite hot, and some odd flavours. I think this is an improvement over the hand pour one I just reviewed, but it’s a bit all over the place. The taste is meh, the finish is quite hot and salt heavy, and the nose is mostly just grapefruit.
At the end of the day this is a simple whisky that already has a lot of the Sauternes elements (nuttiness) but is missing the citrus elements save for the nose. As a non-Sauternes fan, that’s alright, but it’s not really that special and I’d skip. For actual Sauternes whisky fans, I don’t think I’d recommend it either, as it’s not going to give you everything you want.
Unless you’re a hardcore Glen Moray fan, this one is a skip for me.
76/100
Scotch review #1609, Speyside review #461, Whisky Network review #2336
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