TL:DR: A thin yet pleasant fruity dram, just leaves you wanting for more. Like listening to a summer pop song with the volume stuck down at 3.
Vote: 5 Average. In a positive way.
* Votes are based on the scoring scale used by Dramface, slightly modified to allow half-points
Not interested in my ramblings below? Skip to the Glenmorangie 10 year old review here or check the introduction to this leg of my journey
I close my tour of the three (in)famous Glens with this review of the Glenmorangie (pronounced to rhyme with orangey) 10 year old. The distillery has been owned since 2004 by LVMH. By volume, it is the 10th largest Scottish distillery with 7.1M litres capacity (as of 2023). It does much better in sales compared to volumes. It is the 4th most sold single malt Scotch worldwide, the second in the UK, and as far as I can tell, still the top single malt in Scotland.
While the Glenfiddich and Glenlivet are matured in a mix of oak barrels, Glenmorangie is matured only in bourbon casks. Cask influence will take up a big chunk of the next steps of this journey, but it is intriguing to explore the difference between bourbon only versus bourbon/sherry combo already at this early stage.
The very tall pot stills of this distillery, often referred to as “tall as a giraffe” are another feature that makes Glenmorangie remarkable. (The distillery in turn supports the giraffe conservation fund, which is a nice touch). These stills were allegedly originally designed as gin stills and have remained a feature of the spirit distillation. The height of the still necks is supposed to give a very light and clean new make spirit.
Fact of the day: shape builds character… in whisky
It would be fair (if maybe a bit cynical), to pin down the whole “as tall as a giraffe” story to marketing fluff. Still, even more objective sources agree that the long necks stills provide a lighter spirit after distillation. Just a bit of research quickly reveals that shape is one of the main factors in giving the character of a distillery’s spirit. The still shape and features directly affect how light or heavy a spirit can be. I plan to spend more time looking at these various aspects in the upcoming posts. For now, suffice to say that the importance of the still shape is so high that any repairs to a still have to follow the original shape to avoid changes to the spirit.
It does make me wonder something. Would it be possible, by knowing a distillery’ still shape, to set some expectations on the spirit’s character, heavier or lighter? To make it more fun, one could have a game of “Whisky who dunnit?”. Take six drams and six still pictures, and match the dram to the still. Any volunteers for a game?
On the subject of labels
Before diving into the review of the Glenmorangie 10, let me take a short detour. When I researched information on the Glenmorangie 10, the 2022 rebranding which introduced the bright orange label used today kept popping up. As someone who works in marketing, I was intrigued.
Spend a few minutes online and you will quickly find that the new design is very divisive. it is certainly not a fave of most whisky lovers. I honestly like the design. It certainly stands out and looks more in line with LVMH’s fashion brands, which I suspect is the ultimate driver for the change. The official story behind the rebrand is, unfortunately, as dull and inconsequential as anyone who has worked in a large corporation (yours truly included) has learned to expect. It states that the colour is in association with the notes “orange, honey and peach” of the whisky.
Deep down, I hope the real reason for the orange colour is that someone in the LVMH marketing department thought to themselves: “We keep telling these idiots that Glenmorangie rimes with orangey and they keep getting it wrong… you know what, let’s see if they can take an effing hint if we paint the effing bottle orange” (Disclaimer: The quote above is pure fiction, and in my mind I envision it as if spoken by Peter Capaldi playing Malcolm Tucker, with insults of your choosing).
Marketing rambling concluded, let’s move to the whisky.
Glenmorangie 10 Year Old The Original
Specs
Price paid: €37.90
Lot/bottled date: L2480077 bottled 5/12/2022
ABV: 40%
Natural colour: No
Non-chill filtered: No
Casks used: Exclusively bourbon casks. The distillery states it uses first- and second-fill American ex-bourbon casks, including air-dried bespoke casks from Missouri.
Tasting
Neck pour: Straight-up peach and vanilla parfait
Colour: Champagne coloured
Aromas: Not very intense. Right off the bat I get peach, pineapple, vanilla, fresh cream, citrus and a clean sugary note (like what your kitchen smells like when you cook up a simple syrup). As the whisky opens up in the glass the sweet and creamy fruit notes persist. The citrus note becomes more defined reminding me of orange fudge/taffy (depending on which side of the pond you get your English from). There are some faint porridge and oak notes and after about 15 minutes there is a slight green & floral aroma.
Taste: Sweet with vanilla and citrus at the front, then porridge while the fruity notes are more in the background. The mouthfeel is on the thin side.
Finish: The finish is frankly a bit of a disappointment. I wasn’t expecting much, and I got a bit less than that. Short finish, mostly sweet with a hint of porridge oats dustiness before the taste disappears.
How does it behave with a drop of water?
I was expecting a disaster frankly, considering the weak character of this dram. I was positively surprised. Adding half a teaspoon of water to the Glenmorangie 10 does not do much, maybe just makes it a bit sweeter, but it also does not dilute the aromas and flavour which remain pretty consistent.
Conclusions
As much as I try to stay objective, and admit that the Glenmorangie 10 is a pretty weak dram, there is something that makes me like this whisky more than it probably deserves. Yes it is quite watery and the aromas and taste are pretty tame, but the aromas and taste show a lot of potential and I just wish they overall volume was turned up higher on this one. Writing in December, I feel strongly that this is more a summer dram than one for this time of the year.
As an entry-level dram I would choose the Glenmorangie 10 over the previous two “Glens” to ease in absolute newcomers to Scotch. On the other hand, if you like stronger flavours this might be a miss.
As always, here are a few other reviews of the Glenmorangie 10 the Original I enjoyed:
And finally a very interesting exploration of different bottlings of Glenmorangie 10 from Dramface
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