Earlier today I published some big Glenmorangie news and I thought it merit a self-punishment of sitting down and finally completing the cobwebs-coated blog post detailing my visit at Glenmorangie last August.

Like I said, I visit Glenmorangie last August, but it wasn’t a planned visit and I didn’t book a tour. We were on the way south to from Old Pulteney (my visit recap is here) toward Dornoch Castle and then Inverness. It was rainy and foggy on the coastal road but just as were near Tain, the skies were mostly blue with a few scattered clouds and then there was a big sign leading to Glenmornagie distillery.

That’s the kind of signs you shouldn’t ignore, right? Besides, I have a soft spot for Glenmorangie 10 which was one of my first purchases, so we turned left to the road toward Glenmorangie and told ourselves we’ll just stroll around for a while and visit the visitors center. The distillery was packed with buses and tourists but when I asked if there’s place on the next tour that was supposed to start in 2 minutes (and was the last tour of the day), we were surprised to find out that indeed, there’s place on the tour and a minute later we joined the crowd to start the tour.

And then we went on the tour. I won’t bore you with a yet another detailed explanation on the various steps of the whisky creation process, so instead just enjoy a few photos (with captions):

After the tour we went back to the visitors center and I saw many of the private edition bottles for sale at reasonable price except for one. Care to guess which?

I didn’t taste anything on the visit as I was the designated driver, and it was the Glenmorangie 10 on offer which I reviewed long time ago but I won’t leave you without a dram review. Today it’s the old and discontinued Glenmorangie 15 Year Old. Quite a surprisingly good one!

Glenmorangie 15 Year Old (43.0%, £119.95/€168.90)

Nose: What a nose, I almost forgot Glenmorangie can do whisky without finishes. This one feels like it flirts with us. Starts very bold and strongly flavored with big malty note, oranges with a dash of salt, creamy honeyed porridge, baking spices, herbs and even some light bright flowers, nuts, some background chalk and I swear I had a whiff or two of Pilsner beer somewhere in there!

Palate: Starts thick and sweet and immediately turns spicy and creamy, roasted almonds, herbal honey, cloves, , vanilla and some peaches to round it all.

Finish: Medium length finish with a touch of peaches, toffee and lingering spiciness in throat followed by some smoke.

Thoughts: Now that’s a proper dram. I really hope they will get back on track and release some good and old fashioned style whisky.

 

Name: Glenmorangie Distillery
Owners: The Glenmorangie Company (Moët Hennessy)
Location: Tain, Ross-shire
Water source: Tarlogie Springs
Stills: 6 Wash still, 6 Spirit still
Capacity (yearly): 6,000,000 litres

Tour in a nutshell

Tours availability: See on their site
Cost of tour: £5-£120
Length of tour: 1 hour – 3 hours
Distillery Exclusive bottles: No.
Food: No.