Glenmorangie Original 10 Year Old Review

Glenmorangie Original 10 Year Old 40% abv, OU Kosher certification. 700cl 180 Shekels

Kol HaKavod to Glenmorangie, that state on the box that this 10-Year-Old "The Original" expression was exclusively matured in American White Oak Ex-Bourbon barrels.

However, I am slightly concerned by the fact that the expression has both a name as well as an age statement. It reminds me of the Glenlivet Nadurra 16-Year-Old. I am always worried that one day, just like the "Nadurra", they will remove the age statement, turn it into a NAS bottling and hope that no one notices. That would be a terrible shame. At the moment however, quality seems to be high on the priority at Glenmorangie.

Because the Glenmorangie style is floral and fruity, it is often incorrectly referred to as a Speysider even though the distillery sits way up in the North of Scotland, past Inverness on the A9 and opposite Balblair.

Glenmorangie and the art of Finishing

The Scotch Whisky Industry, which up until the 1930s, had been almost totally reliant upon regular sourcing of Transport Sherry casks from Spain (these are casks used to transport sherry to the UK where it was bottled), received its first blow when the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) broke out, resulting in a severe scarcity of new fresh quality sherry casks. Supplies reached crisis point in the 1980s when the Spanish government decreed that from now on, all sherry must be bottled at its country of origin, resulting in a complete termination of Sherry transport casks. Most distilleries adapted and as their old sherry casks wore out, they were replaced with much cheaper and more widely available American Ex-Bourbon barrels.

Ex-Bourbon matured whisky results in a totally different flavour profile due to previous contents of the cask.

It is important to mention at this point that it is a complete myth (often stated by some frum Jews who enjoy drinking their “Sherry Bombs” a bit too much and wish to justify their, in my opinion, questionable behaviour), that the flavour difference between Ex-Bourbon matured and Ex-Sherry matured cask Single Malts, is due wholly to the difference between European QR wood and American QA wood. In fact, the Spanish Sherry industry imports the majority of its wood from the United States to make their “Spanish” or “European” Casks. Only a minority of Spanish casks are actually made from the much more expensive European QR oak. [See online articles by sherry cask Whisky expert Ruben Luyten].

In the early 1980s, Balvenie (William Grants and Sons), and Glenmorangie   distilleries began to experiment with transferring Ex-Bourbon matured whisky into Ex-Sherry and Port casks for a period of six to months to two years. They had two motivations for this. 1, they had a number of disappointing tired out Ex-Bourbon casks which were underperforming in terms of maturation, and 2, they wanted to try and recreate the old style Sherry cask flavour. [See article in MWYB 2014 “The Beginning of Finishing” by Jonny McCormick]

These “Finished” bottlings became an immediate commercial success with more and more pressure put on whisky makers from consumers thirsty for fruit sherry influenced single malt, to further increase the sherry infused wood influence and the complexity which it imparts to the whisky. Thus was born what we term the “Sherry Bomb” or “Sherry Monster” whisky with its deep red colour and flavour notes of black cherries and notes of dark dry fruits like dates and figs, a typical flavour profile of Sherry. It must be noted that Sherry Monsters existed prior to the 1990s but they were one offs, special bottlings from a single Port or Sherry cask stretching to perhaps 670 to 690 bottles in total. Moreover, exclusively or predominantly Ex-Sherry butt matured releases also existed (and continue to be produced today, such as Clynelish 14 and Lagavulin 16 to name just two examples), but they are made up of Second to Fifth-Fill Sherry butts which although produce a richly bodied whisky, are not heavily sherry flavoured influenced due to the age and reuse of the casks.

It wasn’t until the 1990s where distilleries identified this new market and began bottling First-Fill Sherry, Wine and Port cask single malts to meet the demand.

Today at Glenmorangie distillery, the Finished whisky expression usually begins its life as a 10-Year-Old original bottling but then is transferred to a First-Fill or re-seasoned Sherry, Port or wine cask for further maturation and flavour enhancement. This is what we refer to as “Finishing” or “ACEing” (Additional Cask Enhancement).

https://www.glenmorangie.com/en-gb/news/an-original-approach-to-wood

“After just two years, up to 12% of a 500-litre Sherry butt’s contents can be absorbed into the oak. While technically nothing can be added to a Scotch whisky aside from caramel colour and water, those 60 litres of Sherry sitting in the oak will eventually breathe out of the wood and into the whisky. This is where the taboo topic of in drink divides distillers.”

In addition, there is another 10-15 litres of sherry sloshing around in the cask in order to prevent the wood from drying out before it is filled with new-make-spirit. Even though, according to SWA rules, the distillery warehouse is supposed to pour this sherry out before the cask is used, there is no enforcement of this rule and many in the industry will admit privately in conversation (but never in an email), that they “neglect” to do so.

[See article “The Beginning of Finishing” by professional whisky writer Jonny McCormick, in Malt Whisky Year Book 2014, Page 38].

Today, almost the entire range of Glenmorangie are finished in a variety of casks including different types of sherry, Portuguese Port and other exotic sweet casks. This includes the Quinta Ruban Port, Nectar D’Or Sauternes, Lasanta Sherry, Sonnalta PX……(you get the picture!).

However, here we are reviewing the “raw” 100% Ex-Bourbon matured - un-“finished” Glenmorangie product, with no kashrus issues and with Kosher Certification from the OU to boot!

Packaging and Art Work

This is what the old bottling used to look like:

Many mature whisky drinkers, particulary in Scotland, where this was (and I believe continues to be so), their best selling Single Malt, will remember the bottling packaging and artwork with great affection. It remained pretty much the same ever since it first came on the market in the early 1980s. The label has a vintage Victorian look to it and perhaps some might say  "traditional" or "classic".

The New packaging:

In 2004 when Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton bought Glenmorangie, they almost immediately stamped their brand on the distillery by changing the 1970s style iconic whisky bottle and tube packaging to a French champagne style bottle looking very curvaceous, with bright florescent orange colouring and a cardboard box design just like Ardbeg, its sister distillery, with that inner tongue holding the kneck of the bottle.

The striking package Artwork design is taken from an ancient Pictish standing stone called the "Hilton of Cadboll Stone", which for thousands of years, sat in a field near the distillery. In the 19th century it was removed and placed in the British Museum in London. This proved, understandably so, extremely unpopular with the Scots who campaigned for years to see its return to Scotland. Eventually, in the early 2,000s, it began its journey back to its native land and now sits in the Museum of Scotland. Moreover, an exact replica was commissioned by the Scottish government and placed in the field where it was originally taken.

My Notes on the Old Bottling

I bought a bottle of the old style Glenmorangie 10-Year-Old way back in the 1990s. My notes from that period (jotted down in the notes section of “The Malt Whisky Almanac” by Wallace Milroy), are mandarins, syrupy and sickly sweet. One of the few single malts I did not like and would not buy again.

....and now the New Bottling

Colour

Bright golden straw yellow.

If there is E150a caramel colouring, then it is very lightly coloured.

Mouthfeel Texture

Due to being, what seems to be heavy Chill-Filtration, mouthfeel is a bit clean and thin which I suppose might actually appeal to those beginning their single malt journal.

Nose

Quite lovely aroma. Fresh, fruity and floral, surprisingly multifaceted and very enticing. Tropical yellow fruit, slight whiff of nail polish remover. Floral daffodils, Heather Honey, soft wood spices. Moist vanilla cake.

Taste

Yellow Tropical fruits, Pineapple, pineapple travel sweets drop, vanilla custard, vanilla cream yeast cakes, yellow apples, golden sultanas, honey cream, soft wood spices.

Finish

The finish is surprisingly long for a budget 10-Year-Old and certainly shows that despite its entry level market position, it holds its flavour very well. It is a satisfying finish which would please all but the most demanding drinker (i.e., whisky snob!).

Conclusion

It represents truly excellent value for money. The Glenmorangie Original won’t please everyone but it will please most people, most of the time. Yes, I could grumble about the chill-filtration, lack of mouth-feel and minimum alcohol level of 40% abv, but at that price, you can’t really grumble. It is almost always available at a simcha (Wedding, Bar Mitzva etc..), and the one to choose over the ubiquitous Glenlivet or Glenfiddich bottlings. I used to highly prize the old bottlings of Tomintoul and Glen Grant but recently (in my opinion), quality has dropped and I'd choose this Glenmorangie over the current budget Glen Grants or the Tomnintoul 10-Year Old or any of their NAS bottlings.

It is probably the most agreable and approachable, beginner friendly and all round tasty dram on the budget whisky single malt market today and well worth keeping a bottle permanently in your collection for the newbie guest who says he doesn’t like or care much for single malts.

I'd say this should be the first bottle of single malt you should buy.

Its nearest rival is obviously the excellent Glen Moray 12 which is lighter, more white fruits and floral rather than Glenmorangie which is yellow fruits and floral.  Other considerations are the Deanston Virgin Oak which is much richer in flavour.

My advice for someone just starting off would be to skip the Glenlivets, Glen Grants, Cardhus, Glenfiddichs... and start your Single Malt Collection with this Glenmorangie Original, a Deanston Virgin Oak, a Glen Moray 12, Old Pulteney 12 for a gentle coastal experince and for the slightly more adventurous, a peaty Islay Bowmore No.1. All these expressions on the above shortlist are around the 100-180 Shekel price range and 100% Ex-Bourbon Cask matured and therefore have no kashrus issues. LeChayim!