After 10 years of Private Editions, Glenmorangie are taking a break from the series (maybe even for good) and instead we have this limited edition called “Glenmorangie a Tale of Cake” which in short is a whisky that started like the Glenmorangie 10 Traditional and then took a twist with Tokaji wine casks finish.

Tokaji is a dessert wine style from Hungary (and neighbor Slovakia) and we don’t see many whiskies finished in such casks as it’s considered hard to master and get a good taste profile.

The reasoning behind this whisky was to reflect a cake in a bottle:

Dr Bill, found himself musing over how some of his most joyful memories came from cake — from the pineapple upside down cake his daughter made for his birthday to baking with his Granny in her kitchen.

He devised this whisky to conjure the magic of a cake moment, finishing his favourite Glenmorangie Single Malt in the finest Tokaji dessert wine casks.

Glenmorangie a Tale of Cake (46%, £75)

Photo credit: thewhiskyexchange.com

Nose: If the 10yo starts with vanilla, honey and nuts spices, here the nose starts with pears, subtle oak spice, dessert white wine (duh!) which then laces with late coming Glenmorangie classic features of soft honey, vanilla and nuttiness. After a few minutes boom! a bowl of white chocolate, more nuttiness and white pepper. Then some unripe fruits and green melon, ripe pears, sweet grapes and even more honey and spice.

Palate: Closer to traditional Glenmorangie profile, with the light nuttiness, honey and softness, but also stronger spice presence than the usual, white grapes peels, white pepper, more nuttiness, ripe pears, green grapes and white chocolate, intense and luscious.

Finish: medium length, lingering warm spiciness, grapes peels, white pepper, honey, white wine, slightly drying.

Thoughts: Franky, it’s not what I expected. I was ready for a sweet whisky and instead we’ve got a far more spicy and far less sweet whisky than I imagined from Tokaji casks. But it’s a peasant surprise as I would say that Glenmorangie whisky is already sweet by nature so the extra dry wine flavors and spiciness livened it up.