Nose: Faint red berries and tropical fruit salad with a piece of Turkish delight. A malty cereal backing with a little vanilla and caramel. Some oak notes. It's pleasant and fragrant but also a little wispy and retiring, and there's an intrusive ethanol presence. It's more like the nose of a fruity sherry-tinged blend than a malt. Palate: A light arrival that turns spirity and hard in the development. Cereal is prominent on the palate but it's not malty and sweet - it's sour and more like burnt porridge. These sour notes eventually become quite bitter. The texture is light, dry and almost vodka-ish. Finish: Short. Fino sherry, hot spiky tannin and bitter cocoa. There is a very faint wine note in the aftertaste. The nose is the best part of this affordable malt but I would never have guessed from a blind tasting that it was port matured - it seems more like the influence of manzanilla casks. I also won't be using it as a sipping whisky - the bottle is going straight onto the mixing spirits shelf along with the mid-tier blended scotches. It's too hard and thin for my palate with an over-prominent ethanol profile. Water doesn't improve it - the good aspects become fainter and the negative ones get worse. Only cola can save this stuff, and does so by balancing out the hard, bitter characteristics quite successfully. None of the cheaper Glen Moray wood-finished whiskies has impressed me much. The more expensive age-statement wood-finished expressions are a different story, but if you're looking at their affordable bottom tier stuff then I'd recommend sticking with the basic Glen Moray Elgin Classic, which is very good value, and give this one a miss. "Adequate" : 74/100 (2.25 stars)