Tasting Notes: The Glenmorangie Single Malt

Yesterday I had the pleasure to be part of a tasting of a diverse selection of The Glenmorangie‘s Single malt expressions held at Ciro’s Speakeasy and lead by Bill Hyatt (Moet-Hennessy Portfolio Manager). This is what was talked about:

Master Distiller Bill Lumsden
The Glenmorangie holds the tallest stills (16 feet 10 1/4 inches) in Scotland allowing only the lightest and purest vapours to make it to the top. This stills where initially used for Gin.
The distillation process is undertaken by a staff of 16, known as The Sixteen Men of Tain, who work year round.
Casks are only used twice.
The Cask imparts aprox. up to 2/3 of the flavor of the spirit.
The distillery is located in the Highland town of Tain. The distillery was founded in 1843
Glenmorangie has been experimenting with different cask for maturation for over 20 years.
Glenmorangie Original is aged 10 years in american oak barrels that have been used for bourbon maturation and its different expressions are aged 2 more years in specially selected casks. Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban aged 2 more years in port casks form Portugal. Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or aged 2 extra years in Sauternes casks from France. Glenmorangie Lasanta 2 years in Oloroso casks from Spain.
Glenmorangie releases yearly a new product for its customers, this year its Glenmorangie Finealta (‘elegant’ in Gaelic) which uses a recipe that dates back to 1903. Matured in a combination of American white oak casks and Spanish Oloroso sherry casks this whisky is unusual for its light touch of peatiness – a reminder of a time when Glenmorangie dried its barley in a peat fired kiln.

Here is Master distiller Bill Lumsden describing the expressions we tasted.