Whisky : Glen Moray 10 Year SMWS 35.232 “The St. Bernard’s barrel”

Country/Region : Scotland/Speyside

ABV : 62.5%

Cask : First Fill Red Wine Barrique

Age : 10 Years (Distilled 1 July 2008)

Nose : Floral vanilla and sweet honey lead a load of sweet sugars out of the glass.  Faint floral plumerias and butterscotch come at turns, but the nose is fairly restrained and straight forward.  Perhaps a pear custard tart.  The nose is notably hot and sugary.

Palate : Light and sweet, the heat of the nose comes straight through on the palate.  The youth and spirit of this Glen Moray is very forward though give the dram some time and it mellows out nicely.  Sweet honey, cocoa butter, and a bit of brûléed custard give some variations to the sweet.  A bit of water brings forward banana notes that had lingered in the background.  Sweet and creamy apple bananas or maybe a banana cream pie.

Finish : Lingering sweet milk chocolate and a rum baba cake with fresh cut banana slices.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Graham cracker crust baking in the oven, a fruity filling waiting on the stove.

Something Better : Arran Smuggler Vol.1, ‘Illicit Stills’ (similar custard/pie, more spice, more complex)

Something Similar : Suntory Royal (similar palate, more restrained, less finish)

Something Worse : Brenne Single Malt (more artificial banana, much sweeter, less complex)

Notes : The flavor profile on this is pretty far off from what I usually enjoy.  I have never really cared for bananas much less banana cream pie— not since I was five years old anyway.  This dram is too sweet and rich with dessert sugars for my taste, though it is not quite cloyingly so.  I suspect a fan of sweeter drams would find this delightful as the palate shifts between different sweet, fruity, and caramel desserts.

It is a fine dram and it made for an excellent highball when I was not sure what to do with my remaining stash.  So I may not be giving it the best grade in the world, but a C is still a fine whisky, just perhaps not one that is to my taste.  At our monthly tasting event this scored basically in the middle of the pack with all the tasters.  It was neither in the running for best in show, nor was it at risk for being voted off the island.  I have no idea what it has to do with a St. Bernard or why a dog would own a whisky barrel.  I am sure there is another meaning there, but I do enjoy the image of some large dogs running a distillery.