Glenmorangie
| Glenmorangie | |
|---|---|
 Main building of the Glenmorangie Distillery |
|
| country | Scotland |
| region | Highlands |
| Geographical location | 57 ° 49 '30 " N , 4 ° 4' 30" W |
| Type | Paint |
| status | active |
| owner | LVMH |
| Founded | 1843 |
| founder | William Matheson |
| Water source | Sources in the Tarlogie Hills |
| Washstill (s) | 8 × 11,400 l |
| Spiritstill (s) | 8 × 8,200 l |
| Production volume | 9,000,000 l |
| Website | www.glenmorangie.com |
Glenmorangie [ ɡlɛnˈmɔrəndʒi ] is a whiskey distillery in Tain in the Northern Highlands of Scotland .
history
Evidence of (illegal) whiskey distilling in Tain goes back to the period around 1700, but it is only since 1843 that the Glenmorangie distillery, founded by the Matheson brothers, has been distilling a legal whiskey. A brewery was previously located in the distillery's buildings. The distillery was already exporting to Italy and the USA in 1880. In 1883 the original distillery had to be rebuilt, and in 1887 the Glenmorangie Distillery Co. Ltd. founded. The distillery remained in the hands of the Matheson family until 1918, when MacDonald & Muir took over the company after a production weakness caused by the First World War .
In the years 1931-1936 and 1941-1944 the distillery was closed.
Due to the success of the Glenmorangie, the production facilities had to be enlarged several times. In 1980 two new stills were installed and in 1990 another four, so that today a total of eight stills are produced. Glenmorangie is the best-selling single malt whiskey in the Scottish market.
In 2004, Glenmorangie PLC took over the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society with more than 27,000 members.
Since October 2004 the company has belonged to the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) group, which took over the shares of the McDonald family. After 161 years, the family withdrew from the whiskey business. The company was valued at approximately £ 300 million .
Today, in addition to the actual distillery in Tain, Glenmorangie PLC also owns the Ardbeg distillery (taken over in 1997) on Islay . The distillery Glen Moray , taken over in 1920, was sold to La Martiniquaise (which also sells American bourbon Old Virginia in France) in September 2008 , as its character did not fit into LVMH's luxury goods segment.
Basically, there should always be exactly 16 employees at Glenmorangie, the 16 Men of Tain . Recently, however, this only relates to the actual manufacturers in the distilling process, a total of around 90 people are employed in the distillery, for example in the warehouse, shop and administration.
Characteristic
Probably the most striking feature of the distillery are the unusually high stills. The liquid is heated here so that the alcohol and the aromatic substances evaporate and condense on the still. With a total height of eight meters and a height of 5.14 meters above the still, they are the highest stills of all Scottish distilleries. This makes the Glenmorangie whiskey particularly mild. The malt used is no longer produced by Glenmorangie itself, but when shopping, you make sure to buy malt from local grains if possible, and this should only be lightly peated. Some of the Glenmorangie whiskeys are colored darker with food coloring ( E 150a ), but their bitter taste hardly affects the quality of the whiskey.
Glenmorangie also runs whiskey weekends that include tasting.
Bottlings
Former bottlings
10, 15, 18 years old
Glenmorangie offered its whiskey in three different ages. All three variants were stored exclusively in reused Bourbon barrels. There are also older bottlings, but these are mostly special bottlings from the distillery that are not offered regularly.
Sherry Wood Finish
The post-storage of whiskey in sherry barrels is common among Scottish distilleries. Aromas in the wood are released from the whiskey and enrich the taste. Like all other whiskeys in the Wood Finish series, this whiskey had no age information until 2010. Since then, the age indication “12 years” can be found on the packaging and the bottle. The Sherry Wood Finish is now available under the name "Lasanta".
Port wood finish
In addition to sherry barrels, port wine barrels are also often used on a smaller scale to influence the taste of a whiskey through subsequent storage. In October 2007 the whiskey series was converted, the "Port Wood Finish" is now available under the name Quinta Ruban .
Madeira Wood finish
Much less common than storage in sherry or port wine casks is the storage of whiskey in Madeira wine casks . Few distilleries offer such a downstream whiskey. At Glenmorangie it was part of the standard product range. There are also other bottlings that are not regularly available and are offered in cask strength that is completely stored in Madeira wine barrels. For such a bottle you have to pay significantly more than for the standard bottlings. With the conversion in October 2007, this series expired.
Burgundy Wood finish
This bottling was released between 2004 and 2007. She joined a small but growing trend of storing whiskeys in wine barrels. Like all other bottlings in the Wood-Finish series, the whiskeys used for this were stored in other barrels for two years. In this case it was old Burgundy barrels from the Côte-d'Or department .
Cellar 13
All of the barrels used for this 10 year old whiskey came from a single warehouse, Cellar No. 13 . This is where the whiskey is said to have the best climate of any Glenmorangie warehouse to mature.
Traditional 100 proof
Although there was no regularly produced cask strength whiskey as a distillery bottling, this whiskey with its 57.2% alcohol (corresponds to 100 proof ) was in the range of cask strength. As one of the few bottlings of the distillery, the traditional was not offered in the standard bottle in a tube, but came in a bulbous one-liter bottle in a cardboard box lined with sackcloth. In terms of taste, it is mainly reminiscent of honey, but offers a large number of other taste nuances.
Current bottlings
In 2007, the existing product range was changed and presented in a new design and with sometimes imaginative names, in line with the luxury brand LVMH. Since then, the range has steadily expanded, with the standard bottlings remaining unchanged. As of February 2020, the offer includes six different editions, which are also priced differently:
Core expression (standard bottlings):
- The Original - the former 10 Years Old
- The Lasanta - formerly Sherry Wood Finish
- Nectar d'Òr - new, maturing in barrels from the French wine region Sauternes
- The Quinta Ruban - formerly Port Wood Finish , available as a 12- and 14-year-old edition
Exclusive core expression (available in duty free):
- The Accord - 12 years old, Oloroso finish
- The Elementa - 14 years old, finish in a first fill oak barrel
- The Tribute - 16 years old, lightly peated
The Legends (all without age information; available in duty free):
- The Cadboll - Finish in French Wine Barrels (Muscat and Semillon)
- The Duthac - Finish in Pedro Ximenes barrels
- The Tayne - Amontillado finish
Private Edition:
A series of limited special bottlings, initially published under the title Private Collection.
- Glenmorangie Sonnalta PX (2009) - maturation in specially selected Pedro Ximénez sherry barrels
- Glenmorangie Finealta (2010) - Based on a recipe made in 1903 for the Savoy Hotel in London. Only Spanish Oloroso sherry and American white oak barrels were used for aging .
- Glenmorangie Artein (2011) - Composed of 15- and 21-year-old whiskey from ex-Bourbon barrels, matured in Sassicaia red wine barrels.
- Glenmorangie Ealanta (2012) - A nineteen year old vintage whiskey from 1993, bottled in 2012. Stored in first-filled, heavily burned white oak barrels, the wood of which comes from the Mark Twain National Forest in the US state of Missouri.
- Glenmorangie Companta (from the end of January 2014) - Aged in American oak barrels (ex-Bourbon barrels), further matured in French wine barrels (Grand Cru and Côtes du Rhône).
- Glenmorangie Tùsail (2015) - A whiskey with no age information, made from Maris Otter barley . The barley malt was produced in a traditional barn malt house . The use of this type of barley, which is rarely used in the industrial style, promises a particularly original taste of the whiskey. As with the predecessors of the Private Edition, the name Tùsail comes from the Scottish Gaelic language and means "original" or "original". This sixth edition of the Private Edition series has been available since the first quarter of 2015.
- Glenmorangie Milsean (2016) - A whiskey with no age information, which, according to an official press release, matured for "a few years" in ex-Portuguese red wine barrels after maturing in former Bourbon barrels. These were also burned out beforehand ("flame-toasted") in order to achieve a particularly strong sweetness of the whiskey. The Gaelic word "Milsean" means "candy".
- Glenmorangie Bacalta (2017) - A whiskey with no age information, which, after maturing in former Bourbon barrels, then matured in Madeira barrels. The Gaelic word "Bacalta" means "baked".
- Glenmorangie Spios (2018), the 9th bottling, 46% vol.
- Glenmorangie Allta (2019), the 10th bottling, 51.2% vol - A wild yeast strain and barley from the region were used for the whiskey, which matured in first and second filled bourbon barrels. The Gaelic word "Allta" means "wild".
Prestige expressions:
A number of different limited and rather rare vintage bottlings. This includes different lines:
- 18, 19 and 25 year old bottlings
- Grand Vintage : Series of vintages from 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993.
- Signet: a single malt made from the oldest whiskeys from Glenmorangie.
- Pride: old vintage bottlings from 1974 (41 year old), 1978 (limited to 700 bottles, 34 year old whiskey. After 19 years of classic aging, it received a fifteen year finish in claret barrels. This was the longest post-aging that a whiskey has ever had Glenmorangie learned) and 1981 (limited to 1000 bottles. This 28 year old single malt matured in rare barrique barrels of the Château d'Yquem winery in Sauternes). The series comes in a special packaging and decanter design, which is made of glass crystal ( Baccarat ) in the trade.
Limited Edition (limited bottlings):
As of November 2014, the Glenmorangie Dornoch was only available in Travel Retail or duty-free . This Glenmorangie was aged in white oak barrels and received its finish in Amontillado sherry barrels. The light peat of this whiskey was unusual for Glenmorangie. For every bottle sold, a donation was made to the Marine Conservation Society . This was intended to support the preservation of the natural habitat of the Dornoch Firth, the inlet on which the Glenmorangie distillery is located.
Currently (as of February 2020) four different fillings are available:
- Astar 2009 and Astar 2017
- A Midwinter Night's Dram 2015 and 2017
Cask Masters
Starting in March 2013, Glenmorangie organized the so-called "Cask Masters" for the first time. With this crowdsourcing project, whiskey fans had the opportunity to influence another special bottling via online voting. Initially, the type of barrel for post-maturation could be selected from several suggestions. In further steps the name, the label design and the promotional photo as well as the location for the official presentation of the new whiskey were determined.
The resulting bottling comes from Manzanilla sherry barrels (Palomino Fino grapes), bears the name "Taghta" (Gaelic for chosen), and has a label in the classic Glenmorangie design with echoes of its Spanish and Scottish origins. The whiskey is presented to the public at Glenmorangie House in Cadboll on the Moray Firth. Participants were rewarded with participation in the world premiere, and they also receive a non-binding pre-purchase option. The Glenmorangie Taghta has been available since the end of September 2014.
See also
literature
- Ralf Bernhardt, Hans Georg Würsching: The Glenmorangie Single Malt Whiskey Collector's Guide. Cluaran, Einhausen 2005, ISBN 3-9809344-3-8 .
- Charles MacLean (Ed.): Whiskey. World Guide, Regions, Distillers, Malts, Blends, Tasting Notes. Dorling Kindersley, London et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-7566-3349-3 .
- Walter Schobert: The whiskey dictionary. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2003, ISBN 978-3-596-15868-3 .
- Ingvar Ronde (Ed.): Malt Whiskey Yearbook 2017 MagDig Media Limited, Shrewsbury. 2016, ISBN 978-0-9576553-3-1
Web links
- Official Site of Glenmorangie (English)
- Glenmorangie at www.whiskybase.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.theglenmorangiecompany.com/news/article/glenmorangie-milsean-summons-sweet-splendour/
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
