A Summery Budget Bottle: Glen Moray 10yr Chardonnay Cask

The days are getting warmer, we are lighting up our barbies and waiting with baited breath for the World Cup to kick off. This is sure to be a summer to remember and it needs a suitable whisky for the long drinking sessions in the summer heat that is priced competitively to not affect your abilities to get out and about at will. Glen Moray 10yr Chardonnay cask should fit the bill nicely. It's priced at £25 at Sainsbury's which should be more than enough to get you out and buying a bottle, but I'll continue.

Glen Moray is based in Speyside, the most populated whisky region and is at the very heart in its capital, Elgin. Glen Moray has recently began experimenting with some different cask finishes on their malt which can help round and improve their standard malt which is quite light and drier generally than its other Speyside brethren. This whisky is obviously finished in old chardonnay casks which is perfect for summer, the concept marrying of lovely malty alcohol with the toasty, fruity, vanilla of cask fermented chardonnay is intoxicating and is something that doesn't get done very often with fortified, red and sweet wines taking preference over the dry whites.

On the nose there is orange, butterscotch, caramel, banana, melon, grapes, pineapple, vanilla and a touch of toast. A fantastic nose that leaps out of the glass rubbing fruit all over your face, it's a really wonderful summery fruity bonanza. There is so much going on here that goes above and beyond your expectations of such a cheap malt.

On the palate this whisky is a bit hot at first and benefits from a tiny, miniscule, itsy-bitsy touch of water - it won't stand up to too much. This is a wonderful sweet and confected malt full of tons of different fruity sweets, but there is a great balancing sour acidic note, it comes on after a few seconds. It's nice and dry and rounded too - not something you'd expect from such a sweet and fruity nose. This is a really fantastic soft, rounded and fruity malt with decent complexity and a good long and powerful finish - it really is a stunning whisky for the age.

It is rare to find such a cheap malt whisky these days, so to find one with an age statement, interesting flavour, character and complexity is like stumbling upon a unicorn in a still open branch of Woolworths. This is a great bottle especially in the summer months, it'll be approachable for your friends and you should hopefully not feel too pissed off when they polish off the bottle, sure it was £25 quid, but at least it wasn't a bottle worth £40 upwards!

Glen Moray 10 yr Chardonnay cask can be bought from Sainsburys for £25 or Master of Malt for an even better £23.71!