Glenmorangie Allta Review

Hi everyone,

Got some new releases that I tasted at the weekend, first and most interesting of which was this new Glenmo. Its part of their series of releases trying new things called Private Edition, similar to what Ardbeg do with their yearly releases. This is their 10th.

Why I think this release is important is because its one of the only Scotch releases that I can think of where the yeast has been made the main unique selling point. Which I think is really cool.

Who knows if its actually made any difference to the flavour, but its good to see people doing something other than: ‘Here’s another new finishing cask!’

 

Glenmorangie Allta 51.2%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Pleasant nose of butterscotch and toffee, quite dry and missing the usual Glenmo fruit, plus heavier than I expected, some dried apple, dry straw, malt, herbal honey note.

Taste: Very good arrival, quite light to start with a great mouthfeel, then a real honey bomb, sweeter than I was expecting from the nose, toasty malt, toast, dried apple, yellow apple, some white pepper spice.

Finish: Medium/Long length. The oak comes in and dries again, honey and toast and butterscotch.

From Wild Yeast found in the distillery. Really interesting to try, although I'm not sure what the difference is meant to be to the flavour. It does seem heavier than a usual Glenmo... A little harsh into the finish as it opens up.

77/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #729

Whisky Network Review #867

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glenmorangie 10 Original Review

Hi everyone,

Back with more whisky I should have reviewed ages ago, the classic Glenmo 10. Being the distillery with the tallest stills, its known for having a light character.

And I leant recently that independent bottlings of Glenmorangie are super rare because any that’s sold off is teaspooned and sold under the name Westport. You can find some unteaspooned but it can’t have the Glenmo name on, and to avoid confusion some have taken to putting giraffes on the labels…

Anyway, I remembered that I forgot to remember to put my notes on my laptop so I went out and sourced some locally.

 

Glenmorangie 10 40%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Fresh and malty, green apple, lemon, some vanilla and pastry, green melon, a tiny bit of oak. Bit of a vague nose though.

Taste: Soft, lacking power and abv, lemon and green apple, melon maybe, then some generic spice coming through with a little oak and ginger.

Finish: Short length. Soft, lacking structure here, some vanilla.

The whole whisky feels a vague and lacks structure in my opinion. Some drams of Glenmo 10 I’ve had have been better. One in particular quite impressed me, so perhaps batch variance is in play or maybe I’ve changed.

62/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #577

Whisky Network Review #682

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban & Madeira (Old Style) Reviews

Hi everyone,

I realised a few days ago that I have a tonne of reviews missing from here (mainly because of this ranking systemI've been doing) and a big part of that failing is Glenmorangie. How have I not review the basic 10yo Glenmo yet? Well, going onto my Glenmorangie folder on my laptop I found that I’ve mysteriously lost my Glenmo 10 review so here’s the other 2 I’ve got until I find some more.

I found the old Madeira finished one in my garage as one of my Dad’s dustys! Great find.

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban 46%

Colour: Ruby Red

Body: Medium

Nose: Clean, fresh and ethereal. Fresh fruit- Blackberry but quite tropical too with pineapple and mango. A little meaty. A tiny bit of spice- Cinnamon.

Water: More full nose. Juicy fruit- Mango, pineapple, blackberry but also some pear.

Taste: Very fresh and quite ethereal to start. A little vanilla then more full fresh fruit- Pineapple, mango and blackberry. Cinnamon into the finish.

Water: More creamy arrival and spicy and drying development. A little chalky.

Finish: Medium length. Blackberry and blueberry then dark chocolate.

12 years, 2 years finished in Port pipes. Very rich this and it did get better the more the level in the bottle went down.

73/100

Glenmorangie Madeira Finish (Old Style) 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Slightly dusty (open bottle effect), fruit cake, raisin and toffee, opening up now, dry oak, ginger biscuit, some apple.

Taste: Soft, fruity, dry oak, ginger biscuit, dry spice, quite intense actually, raisin and then more oak and a little harsh spiciness.

Finish: Medium length. A harshness, some alcohol, ginger and oak.

A 1/3 full bottle found in my Dad's garage. Not as good as I was hoping and I definitely think the oxygen had gotten to this one a little bit.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #568-#569

Whisky Network Reviews #673-#674

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glenmorangie Signet Review: TWE Show Report

Hey gang,

Back for another quick review today. This one is the Glenmorangie Signet. Have I reviewed any Glenmorangie here yet? No? Oh, well they've got the tallest stills in Scotland but nothing has ever really interested me that much to try or buy many of them. Apart from the 12yo Portwood finish, which is lovely stuff I got on a deal.

So what's the deal with this Signet thing? It's a bit different and I'd heard good things from various sources. It's at a higher strength, partly Sherry matured (I think) and part of the whisky is made from chocolate malt (normally reserved for brewing, not distilling). However, it's also NAS, fancifully packaged and has a higher price tag, so let's proceed with caution.

Glenmorangie Signet 46%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Really very sweet. Marzipan, almond, cherry Bakewell tart. What I would describe as 'sticky sweet.'

Taste: Very soft arrival, light with marzipan and chocolate, expensive truffle chocolates, slightly earthy.

Finish: Medium length. Loads of chocolate, dark chocolate and chocolate truffles.

Don't know if my brain has unconsciously processed the chocolate malt info and made my find more chocolate but this is a pretty delicious whisky. For the price though, I think I'd be disappointed if I'd bought a bottle.

77/100

Thanks for reading! More coming up.

Review #237

Network Average: 75.9

Best Score: 92

Work Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just about OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Great

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

TWE Show Report + Exciting Intro Stuff: TBWC Secret Distillery #2 21yo Review

HELLO!

I am excited! The Whisky Exchange show in London was amazing and I’m here to tell you all about my experience there, tasting 80 whiskies in one weekend.

There’s some incredible stuff in here, lots of high scores (…for me), and a load of pre-release/new stuff so I’m keen to get these reviews out before some of them go to market.

Stuff to look out for:

Port Charlotte 10yo (2016)- Literally go and buy a case of this the minute it comes out.

Octomore 10 (2016)

Black Art 5.1 Yes, you heard. 5.1 FIVE Point One

Lagavulin 25 (if you can afford it, sadface)

Laphroaig 2001 HL First Editions (But it’s £160 sadface)- Just came out

Ledaig 2004 G&M for TWE & Ledaig 11 Time Series IV TWE

OMFG THERE’s SO MUCH GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!

Also tasted: Brora 38, Port Ellen Rare Malts 1978, Karuizawa 1983, Laphroaig 1996 Masterpieces, Springbank 21 Show release, Springbank 25 pre-release, Compass Box 3yo Deluxe . There’s a load of great Japanese and Bourbon stuff too so keep an eye on r/WorldWhisky and r/Bourbon.

So, prepare yourself for 80 reviews of epic malt crazy awesomeness!!!

Image courtesy of Master of Malt

First up is a secret distillery bottling from That Boutique-y Whisky Co at 21 years old. From the label you can work out which distillery they are implying, 16 men, 24 foot tall swans... Probably from a Bourbon barrel.

TBWC Secret Distillery #2 21 year old 49.7%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Custard, malt, light, grain whisky-esque, ginger, spicy oak, biscuit.

Taste: Soft, light, malt, delicious custard and biscuit.

Finish: Long length. Ginger snaps.

77/100

Nice, very nice actually. A very biscuity malt but I probably wouldn’t be buying a 50cl bottle for £150 (Story of whisky 2016 eh?), but then they are implying it's a whisky that we don't really see in indie bottlings.

I know, a bit anti-climactic maybe but there’s loads of awesome stuff to come. This was the warm up dram.

Review #184

Network Average: 74.4

Best Score: 91

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent