Welcome to a special Holiday round of Whisky You Can Drink, wherein I drink whisky and tell you about it. Today we’ll sample some Glenmorangie 10, a single-malt Highland scotch with a 10-year age statement clocking in at 80 proof. I paid about $40 for this bottle on sale, $8 off the regular price, which is well above my normal self-imposed limit, and one reason you may consider whether you want to drink it.
Glenmorangie’s distillery was established in 1843, and crafts its whisky in copper stills “as tall as a giraffe.” I have no fucking clue what difference that’s supposed to make. Copper still, pot still, column still, “as tall as a giraffe”…………….every time I try to figure out what difference any of this shit makes to the taste of the whisky, I wind up confused and needing a drink. Speaking of which, let’s have some scotch.
What’s it smell like? It’s kind of floral and fruity, with notes of honey. There is a base scent of rice cereal, like that stuff you used to feed your kids. If you look hard, you’ll get a whiff of cola.
What’s it taste like? First off, though it bills itself as a Highland, this drinks more like a Speyside, and indeed the distillery is only a stone’s throw from the Speyside region. There is no smoke or peat here at all. Instead, there are honey and fruit notes, along with baker’s chocolate. It’s heavier than a typical Speyside, and there are hints of cola, or root beer, or sarsaparilla, or Moxie, or some damned thing. It’s also the least scratchy-feeling scotch I’ve encountered. This is a really nice pour, but at $40/48 I would expect it to be.
Should you buy it? Don’t let me tell you what to do with your money. But if you’re like me and consider $40-50 a whiskey splurge, this is a good place to start. Or, if you don’t want to show up to a holiday party with a fucking $12 bottle of Ezra Brooks (keep your eye on these pages), or need a last-minute gift for the scotch drinker in your life, hey, who am I to tell you not to?
Will I buy it again? Yes, at the sale price, as a bottle I would keep around for special occasions not-daily drinking. I’m not buying it at full price, but then again I’m probably not buying much of anything that approaches $50.
Love this:
You know what I’m talking about though, right? Some scotches hit your mouth like they’ve got super fine steel wool in them, but not in a bad way, just kind of scratchy.
Yeah, absolutely. It speaks straight to me and my scotch experiences. I’ll keep an eye out for this, @LemmyKilmister.
Someone gave me a bottle of this 2 years ago. I am not a fan of whisky so regifted it to your former band mate Death Subaru Don. He really enjoyed it.
In case you all were wondering, it wasn’t a “Death Subaru” because he was a bad driver. It was because we used to hunt shopping carts with it. Push those fuckers up to about 30mph then hit the brakes and watch them fly.
…I used to have relatives who lived in tain…so I think at one point I may have been to the distillery…although I can’t recall any talk of giraffes?
…it’s good stuff, though…wonder if I have an unfinished bottle somewhere I could dust off…stranger things have happened?