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. Continue reading →

The Travel Retail market is flooded with many NAS whiskies from different distilleries and Glenmorangie isn’t the exception. We’ve seen Tarlogan, Tayne, Cadboll and other releases to this market but in late 2017 we’ve seen an exception – Glenmorangie 19 Year Old Finest Reserve.

Initially the 19 Year Old was a Travel Retail exclusive but recently you can find it in many web shops, so it’s about time I’ll check it out.

This whisky spent its entire life (19 Years) in American white oak barrels, so you could say it’s the Original 10 Year Old casks forgotten for another 9 years before bottled.

Glenmorangie 19 Year Old Finest Reserve (43%, £99.99/€94.99)

Nose: Soft , vert soft and very Glenmorangie with honey and nuttiness as they usually go with. Fruity, with green fruits (almost tropical) such as kiwi and papaya leads the way along with peaches. Soft oak spice, more nuttiness and then white pepper. After a few minutes, more spices and honey. Continue reading →

Last month, like every winter in the last decade, Glenmorangie distillery released their latest Private Edition (always one of the rare high points of winter time  whisky releases). Yes, a decade has passed and we have ‘Allta’ (Wild in Gaelic) is the 10th Private Edition.

While most of the editions in the last decade were focused on the casks and how they influence the Glenmorangie whisky, Allta and Tusail are like the black sheep of the family. Tusail was all about barley and Allta is all about yeasts. Instead of using the standard yeast strain, Dr. Bill Lumsden went with a different yeast strain – a local strain from around Tain.

After some work and time, they found a wild and suitable yeast strain on barley from Cadboll Estate near Tain and they started distilling using this strain.

Glenmorangie Allta (Private Edition #10) (51.2%, £78.95/€84,50/$85.90)

Nose: Bubblegum, very wild and not very Glenmorangie like, malt, I would swear it’s a distilled beer, orange, nuts in the background and a bit of freshness. After a few minutes more nuts and menthol, pears, pine forest, very beer-y. With a few drops of water it’s fruitier and there’s fresh beer froth. A unique nose (especially for Glenmorangie). Continue reading →

Another day, another review of whisky I liked in the past up to the point I had a bottle but never took notes and this time it’s Glenmorangie Signet.

Glenmorangie Signet is the only NAS whisky in the core line up (the annual Private Edition notwithstanding) and it features some percentage of heavily roasted chocolate malt in the recipe.

The chocolate malt is used a lot for beers but rarely for whisky as the yield is far below the commonly used barley strains in the industry. But it does add some different flavors to the whisky.

Glenmorangie Signet (46%, £135/$163/€149)

Nose: Light and gentle fruit sweetness (as expected from a Glenmorangie), malt, charred malt, and dark chocolate, floral fragrance and honey. It’s rich but could be a real bomb with an higher ABV (not that 46 is bad mind you).

Continue reading →

Glenmorangie Astar (Gaelic for “journey”) was first released back in 2008. Casks from oak growing in Missouri Ozark mountains which are slow growing variant were used to mature this whisky. Such casks aren’t very common (and some would say they are scarce), couple that with the fact that Dr. Lumsden isn’t too much in favor of cask strength releases, and you can understand why it took lots of public demand and additional 9 years to get together another edition.

The 2017 Astar was bottled at 52.5% (far below the 57.1% strength of the 2008 edition), isn’t chill filtered and comes with natural color.

Glenmorangie Astar 2017 (52.5%, £62/€59,95)

Nose: Classic Glenmorangie notes, honey, butterscotch, soft nuttiness, orange and lemon peels perfume, a minerals and chalky, buttery almonds croissant and a dash of white pepper and mint freshness. Very rich and sweet. Continue reading →

Last week Glenmorangie has launched the ninth edition in their Private Edition, The Glenmorangie Spios. Unlike previous years, this edition isn’t a wood finish but a full maturation release.

Glenmorangie Spìos (‘spice’ in Gaelic), was fully matured in casks that held rye whisky for 6 years. According to Dr. Bill Lumsden (Also known as Glenmorangie whisky boss), that whisky contained 95% rye so an educated guess would say those casks were sources from MGP Distillery (Indiana, USA), The casks were toasted, and following a lightly charred were filled with Glenmorangie new make that matured in the casks for 7-9 years.

Glenmorangie Spìos (46%, £74.95/€84,95)

Nose: The rye impact is very apparent at first sniff. Spicy with pine, greenery, forest freshness, cloves and mint. After a few minutes less rye influence and we’re getting some more traditional Glenmorangie notes of nuttiness, honey, cinnamon, subtle oak, toffee and citrus. Continue reading →

Tasting and reviewing the Macallan Sienna, got me craving for some whiskies I didn’t taste in a long time. Yeah, you can definitely become nostalgic for drams you tasted earlier in your whisky journey and aren’t in your whisky cabinet at the moment.

So I decided to try another one or two whiskies from my archive which I didn’t review here yet, and the first one I went for was Glenmorangie 18 Year Old. Why? I assure you it’s not because it’s Extremely Rare like they claim it to be. it’s not that rare if you really wondered as it’s in the market for years albeit for a tad higher price tag than most of its age bracket siblings from other distilleries. No, the real reason is that it was on the front row of my archive shelf 😀

Glenmorangie 18 Year Old (43%, £80.90/€68,90/$89.95/445₪)

Nose: That sweet and delicate Glenmorangie profile is up-front here, barley sugar, sweet honey, vanilla, citrus, Brasil nuts and walnuts, a pinch of white pepper and cinnamon, pears, rich and velvety coupled with dry oakiness.

Palate: Sweet velvety honey, then pears and granny smith apples peels, some sour greenery, oranges, barley sugar, ends with spices mostly white pepper and gentle oak spices, gentle nuts mix bowl.

Finish: Medium length, lingering sweetness, pears drops, nuttiness , oak spices and white pepper.

Thoughts: Solid offering from Glenmorangie with the trademark flavor profile of the distillery we all know from the 10 Year Old with added spices and time effect. While it’s not exactly Extremely Rare nor a groundbreaking whisky it’s still a nice 18 year old that competes successfully in this age bracket.

Yesterday I wrote I was happy due to the Glenlivet single cask that was released exclusively to the Israeli market but earlier this month there was another sign that we’re getting noticed in the whisky industry: The annual Glenmorangie Private Edition launch events around the globe included Israel as well with a proper launch event by the local Glenmorangie importer (Y.D 1986) and with actual bottles available to purchase on the same day for the same price as most European countries. Another first time happenstance in our whisky history and a good sign to Israeli whisky aficionados.

Now I have to admit that I have a soft spot for this series. Ever since I bought and tried the Glenmorangie Finealta, I’ve been following this series closely and buying a bottle every year for the last few years and so I did purchase a bottle from a local web shop – what a refreshing change, buying and getting it in the same day instead of waiting for the bottle for 3-4 weeks.

However, the review was delayed because after tasting it and checking my notes against the official notes I found out that a major note I found (chalk and rocks) wasn’t anywhere in the official notes nor any note that can be considered as an alternative. That got me worried at first but since I did taste it directly from a new bottle, I thought maybe it needs some time and so I did re-taste it this week and now I was more satisfied as the rocks/chalk note disappeared 🙂

I won’t bother much with the information and story of the bottling, suffice to note it’s around 12 year old – spent ten years as the standard Glenmorangie Original and then around 2 years in those special Madeira casks Dr. Lumsden picked up.

Glenmorangie Bacalta (46%, £77.95)

Nose: Oranges and mandarins, soft nuttiness, baked pears pie with strong pastry note, strong and rounded baking spices and hints of canned peaches after a few minutes in the glass. And there’s no doubt it’s a Glenmorangie. When I first nosed it, the first image that pop up in my mind was sitting on warm rocks on a cliff in a hot spring day because there was a strong warm rocks and chalk note that was noticed after a few minutes.  Continue reading →