Notes on The Casual Dram:21
Notes on the lineup…
Glen Moray 'North Star' 2006 / 19 years old 56.6%
Cask - Oloroso sherry hogshead (800283)
Region - Speyside
Glen Moray is known for its clean and fruity style thanks to medium fermentation times, large stills, upward-angled lyne arms and shell and tube condensers, which increase reflux and copper contact in general. The clean style is also aided by stainless steel washbacks, which tend to run cleaner ferments resulting in less overt tropical notes and less microbial funk (which can translate into lactic and waxy notes).
Braeval 2000 Distilled Single Sherry Cask Aged 21 Year Old 'Small Batch Bottlers Scotland' 50.4 %
Cask - Sherry hogshead (single cask)
Region - Speyside
Braeval (originally named Braes of Glenlivet) was founded in 1973 by Chivas Brothers Ltd. (then part of Seagram) to supply malt whisky for blended Scotch, especially Chivas Regal.
Breaval, like Glen Moray, uses stainless steel washbacks and longish fermentations with a view to a lighter style of malt, promoted further by reflux bowls on the 4 spirit stills.
Cadenhead's Enigma 'Speyside Single Malt' 16 years old 53.6%
Cask - Manzanilla hogsheads
Region - Speyside
Distillery unknown - but these secret whiskies are often rumoured to come from distilleries such as Macallan, Glenrothes and Glenfarclas. The slightly more experimental nature of the casks (mazanilla) could point to BenRiach - which sometimes also pops up under the guise of the unnamed distillery.
GlenAllachie 'PX Hogshead Single Cask' 2012 / 12 years old #1029 58.3%
Cask - PX Hogshead
Region - Speyside
Glenallachie was founded in 1967 by Mackinlay McPherson and for its first 50 years was primarily a workhorse distillery supplying malt for blends.
In 2017, Billy Walker led an acquisition of GlenAllachie and the distillery began a shift to a single malt whisky range.
Fermentations are super long, around 160 hours, the spirit stills are fitted with boil balls and are on the largeish side, which points towards a lighter fruitier style. However, this is countered by downward sloping lyne arms, which promote less reflux and cause heavier vapours to pass into the condenser resulting in more oil retention.
Mystery whisky
Whiskybase score - 87.29
For those who have bothered to read this far, I will reward you with a nugget of information - the distillery which bottled this release has been mentioned above.
