Glenmorangie The Original

Glenmorangie The Original

A review by Tommy Byrne

Overall rating: 8,5/10

In the past 10 years, I have had a love/hate relationship with Glenmorangie The Original. Even if it’s the whisky that hooked me up to single malts in 2003, I abandoned it when I fell in love with Islay malts in 2010. It took me 3 years to reopen that Highlands golden bottle and since then we have started to flirt again. Being the top selling single malt brand in Scotland and the second in the world, after Glenfiddich, thanks to its acquisition by the LVMH group, Glenmorangie is a wonderful whisky not only for new malt head, but also for connoisseurs.  

This first 10 years old expression of the Glenmorangie range as a nice pale gold colour, but it’s a wee bit too dark for assuming it hasn’t been tainted with the magic touch of e150. On one side, the nose is sweet with hints of pears and peaches, brioche, cinnamon and some bubble-gum.  On the other side, it’s lightly smoked with a touch of toffee, vanilla and oak. Having been aged in white American oak and bourbon casks, the palate is very close to sour mash bourbon with notes of cereals, light smoke and oak.  It has a sour and bitter medium finish.

I was very surprised by this whisky; it was nothing as I expected and as I remembered. By having the highest stills in Scotland, Glenmorangie has to reputation of producing very light whiskies. For some reasons, I was expecting something like a sharper and rougher Speyside malt. Lke Glenfiddich 12, Glenmorangie The Original is a great whisky to get acquainted with single malts. The many extra matured versions of this whisky are great for experiencing various types of cask finishing, such as sherry, port and sauternes.