Golden Nectar from Glenmorangie undergoes a metamorphosis
Glenmorangie Nectar d'Or debuted in 2007 as a whisky with no age declaration, matured in bourbon casks and finished in Sauternes sweet wine casks. For a short time, this edition received a 12yo age declaration, but this was soon abandoned again and Nectar d'Or was again bottled as the so-called NAS.
Glenmorangie The Nectar 16yo (46% vol.) is a new more luxurious incarnation of the existing Nectar d'Or, and will gradually displace the earlier version from the market. It is a whisky matured for 14 years in bourbon barrels before being poured for a full two years into barrels of various sweet white wines. Among them will be barrels from Sauternes, but also from French Monbazillac, Spanish Moscatel and tokai from Hungary. The whisky will be bottled as a 46% strength beverage.
According to the creator of the new whisky, Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie The Nectar is inspired by the sweet, buttery aromas spread around French pastry shops. The change in its recipe is expected to make it even sweeter and more complex than the existing version. In its bouquet we find a wide range of sweet accents, reminiscent of nectar. Notes of brioche, orange syrup, honeycomb and spices such as nutmeg and aniseed.
Except for the metric and recipe change, Glenmorangie The Nectar 16yo also receives new packaging, usually reserved for the more luxurious editions - a slimmer bottle, a wider neck and a label richer in ornamentation. All this is expected to place it on a slightly higher shelf than the entry-level offering. The retail price for a single bottle of Glenmorangie The Nectar is set at £79.
Just over a month ago, another new offering from Glenmorangie also hit the market, namely Glenmorangie A Tale of Tokyo, a whisky partially matured in Japanese mizunara oak barrels.
Established in 1843, the Glenmorangie distillery is located on the northern outskirts of Tain, in the northern part of the Scottish Highlands, on the east coast, on the shores of the Dornoch Firth bay. The distillery is famous for its distinctive, slender and extremely tall alembics, the tallest in the industry. The length of their necks is just over 5 meters, which sooner or later must have been associated with the neck of the giraffe. The animal has become a marketing symbol of the distillery since it was revealed that the length of the necks of the local alembics actually roughly corresponds to the length of a giraffe's neck.
In 2022, a second distillery was erected on the Glenmorangie site in the plant's courtyard. Named The Lighthouse, it is equipped with alembics identical to those described above. Lighthouse's task, however, is not so much to produce a new or different whisky, but to provide the opportunity to experiment under conditions similar to those of Glenmorangie, in search of new recipes, new yeast strains, barley varieties, malt types, production regimes, innovative condensers, etc. Lighthouse is said to be Bill Lumsden's kingdom, and also his most expensive toy.
Glenmorangie has a production potential of just over 7 million liters of pure alcohol per year, making it one of the largest producers of Scotch malt whisky. Innovation and experimentation are part of the distillery's history. Glenmorangie, along with Balvenie, was one of the first Scottish malt whisky companies to begin producing and distributing whisky on a large scale that underwent additional maturation, known as wood finish. In 1994, Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish appeared on the market, followed two years later by Madeira Wood Finish and Sherry Wood Finish.
The House of Whisky Online's current offerings include a wide range of whiskies produced in the suburbs of Tain, sourced from the highest alembics in Scotland, from the Glenmorangie distillery. We invite you to visit and buy.
[02.11.2023 / photo: Glenmorangie]