Glenmorangie Amontillado Finish

One of the more well-known and recognizable Scotch whisky distilleries, located in the northern Scottish suburb of Tain, Glenmorangie, has just announced the release of a new limited edition whisky, subjected to an additional maturation process, known as wood finish.

Glenmorangie Amontillado Finish (46% vol.) is the fourth installment of the Barrel Select Release series, which presents limited editions of whisky subjected to the maturation process, of which Glenmorangie was one of the pioneers at one time. The whisky spent eight years in American white oak bourbon barrels before being transferred to Amontillado sherry casks for four years. As it is said in the official announcement, it is the kind of sherry favored by the team leader to whom we owe these and a whole host of other new Glenmorangie editions, Dr. Bill Lumsden, for years serving as Director of Whisky Creation.

In the aroma of the new whisky we can expect notes of rose, clove and jasmine, intermingled with hints of wax candles and cashew nuts. A splash of water added to the whisky will release notes of dried fruits and peaches in syrup. On the taste, we should tune for notes of spices - cloves and ginger - in perfect harmony with accents of citrus and orange sorbet, lemon balm and eucalyptus oil. Accents of walnut oil and leather will appear in the background. Accents of honey and aniseed will appear on the finish.

Released in previous years, the first three editions included in the Barrel Select Release series also began their lives in American oak bourbon barrels. For the final stage of maturation, however, they traveled to barrels of other liquors, that is, to barrels of sweet malaga, cognac and Palo Cortado sherry.

Owned by LVMH, the Glenmorangie distillery is located in the Highlands region, on the northeast coast of Scotland, on the southern shore of the Dornoch Firth bay. Its closest distilling neighbors are Balblair, Dalmore and Teaninich, as well as the young and small Dornoch Distillery, one of the few Scotch malt whisky plants even further north. Glenmorangie prides itself on owning and using unusually tall, slender alembics in the production of its whisky. Since it was discovered that their height, just over 5 meters, corresponds to that of an adult giraffe, it was this animal that began to be heavily exploited in Glenmorangie's marketing materials. The high alembics mean intense reflux and, consequently, an extremely light distillate.

At the end of the last century, Glenmorangie was one of the forerunners of a new trend in whisky maturation, namely the placement of an already mature distillate, usually from bourbon casks, in a different type of cask. Most were fresh and active barrels of various wines, initially sherry, port and Madeira. Over time, the process began to be used by other producers, initially Balvenie and Glen Moray, and extended to barrels of other types of wine, cognac, and more recently tequila, calvados or beer. To a great extent, the skillful application of this technique has contributed to the market success of the independent distributor, Murray McDavid, which has included "The Art of Maturation" (The Art of Maturation) in its motto. Today, the wood finishing process is used widely and is one of the distilling industry's responses to the increasing difficulty of obtaining good quality barrels for primary maturation and the huge amount of whisky aged in barrels of questionable quality. Allows you to achieve an incomparably broader aroma and flavor spectrum than would be possible without its use.

For the record, it's worth recalling that the first whisky to form the core of the distillery's core offering, and to undergo wood finishing, was Singleton of Auchroisk, which debuted in 198. Its producers, however, did not see fit to include information about double maturation in their marketing materials, and so in the popular consciousness of whisky consumers, the development and introduction of this process is due to Glenmorangie and Balvenie.

The current offering of the House of Whisky Online includes a wide range of whiskies distilled in unusual "giraffe" alembics Glenmorangie. We encourage you to take a look at our fruits of labor "sixteen men from Tain".


[01.03.2023 / photo: Glenmorangie]