New Release: Glen Moray Forbidden Fruit

I’ve no idea why the innocent apple has become the cultural symbol of the ‘forbidden fruit’.

Especially when it comes to the Scotch Whisky Association.

I’ve heard people mentioning tasting notes of red apples, green apples, juicy apples and even toffee apples. But I struggle with detecting most tasting notes unless they’re blindingly obvious.

However, there was no doubt about it when we got a chance to have a sneaky taste of the soon to be released Glen Moray Forbidden Fruit Calvados Cask.

But why ‘Forbidden Fruit’?

In 2018, Glen Moray released a Cider Cask Project which was later pulled off the shelves by the SWA.

It was a unique, two-part project: Glen Moray supplied a cask to Thistly Cross for their ‘whisky finished cider’, and once returned, Glen Moray used the same cask to finish their own whisky.

2,000 bottles were produced and many sold before the SWA declared that the use of the cider cask was forbidden according to the legislation for Scotch Whisky.

At about £55, I’m sure plenty of people will have snapped up a bottle or two. And they now have on their shelves a ‘banned bottle’ of whisky.

I’m keen to find out if there are enough of these withdrawn whiskies available for us to put together our own ‘Banned Bottle Tasting’.

History of experimenting with new casks

We’ve talked a lot about Glen Moray’s experimentation with casks. When we visited the distillery, Angus and I were given a look around the warehouse to see how many variations of different casks they work with.

It’s not something new either, the distillery records show varieties of casks that they’ve been working with for hundreds of years.

We enjoyed the Maple Cask ‘Spirit Drink’ which they released earlier in the year for 2025 Spirit of Speyside Festival. Finishing peated and unpeated whisky in maple syrup casks is pushing the boundaries, but also adding a new meaning to the phrase ‘breakfast whisky’.

We interviewed Sam Barbour who works with the Glen Moray brand and he was kind enough to bring us in a sample of this unreleased Forbidden Fruit Calvados Cask finished Glen Moray.

Calvados is apple brandy and Calvados casks are approved by the SWA guidelines. Meaning that Glen Moray won’t have to worry about this release getting taken off the shelves and they can also call it ‘Scotch Whisky’ instead of Spirit Drink’.

When we spoke to the Head of Whisky Creation Stephen Woodcock, he talked a lot about the importance of distillery character. The fact that Glen Moray can be so experimental with different casks finishes and maturation process, shows just how robust the distillery character actually is.

The dram

It’s got a nice big red apple on the label and the name is a tongue in cheek nod back to the apple cider cask rerelease in 2018. Apple cider casks are not accepted, but apple brandy casks are.

It’s spent 5 years in Bourbon casks before being finished for 3 years in a first fill Calvados Cask.

At just 40% ABV it’s a refreshing, sweet, and an easy drinking dram. Angus compared it to the Glenfiddich Orchard Experiment which used Somerset Pomona Spirt casks. But highlighted that the apple in this comes through much stronger.

I’m all about the sweetness these days, and the mix of vanillas, honey and light spices from the bourbon casks mixes really nicely with the apple and sweetness from the calvados cask.

This will be a dram I’ll be using for my winter warmer hot toddies this Christmas to add something a bit sweeter and different rather than the usual sherried whisky.

I’m told that it should be available within the next few weeks and I’d expect to pick up a bottle for under £50.