Christmas Countdown 2020 #13: Alexander Murray & Co. Glen Moray 13 Year (2002)

Distillery: Glen Moray

Region: Speyside

Age: 13 Year.

ABV: 53.4% Cask Strength

Cask Type: Ex-Bourbon Casks

Color: 0.3, Pale Gold.

This is the 13th installment of this years’ Christmas Countdown. You can see the entire 2020 series here or the 2019 edition here.

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Nose: (according to the wife) Lemon tea with some ginger and honey.

Palate: The mouthfeel is slightly rich and creamy at full strength. You get a lot of the malt with spurts of honey lemon tea. At full strength, it’s surprisingly easy to drink. Water doesn’t seem to do much to it, other than dilute it a tad. No extra notes pop up.

Finish: Longer than expected. More of that honey lemon tea. In fact, it kind of reminds me of the aftertaste from Ricola honey lemon cough drops, though not nearly as strong as those.

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Conclusion: It might be a tad on the simpler side of things but this bottling of Glen Moray by Alexander Murray & Co. is still fairly tasty. The notes of honeyed lemon tea are present from start to finish in this whisky and presented in a nice, soothing manner. The little bit of richness when this first hits the tongue is fun, the malt spirit is tasty in its own right, and that little bit of a medicinal aftertaste is almost telling you that things will be alright. For what it is and for the price point it was originally sold at, a search of other reviews shows that this was originally sold at Trader Joe’s in Southern California for around $35, it’d be a pretty good bargain. I think it’d also be a nice one to have to perhaps ease folks into stronger whiskies since it doesn’t try to burn your tongue off even at full strength.

Final Score: 77.

Scotch Whisky Review #235, Speyside Review #94, Whisky Network Review #355

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.