Third Tasting
Our star whisky this month is a 1990 Glen Garioch 16-yearold cask-strength,
single-cask bottling at 57.1%ABV, bottled from cask #10291.
Glen Garioch, which means “Glen of the Rough Ground,” (Glen is a river valley) is pronounced Glen Geery in the ancient Doric dialect of Aberdeenshire, which is situated in the Highlands. It is thought that Glen Garioch was founded in 1797, but may have been licensed as early as 1785, by two brothers, Alexander and John Manson. Distillery records from that time no longer exist.
It was 1972 before any 20th century production of Glen Garioch was available as a single malt. During the early part of the century it was used in various blends, among them, Vat 69 and Booth’s. The distillery, is owned by Morrison Bowmore, which also owns Bowmore Islay whisky, which is in turn, owned by Suntory Whisky, a Japanese producer of whisky.
According to David Wishart and his classification of Whisky Types, this belongs in Cluster H (Medium-Bodied, Medium-Sweet, with Smoky, Fruity, Spicy Notes and Floral, Nutty Hints ): which includes these similarly flavored whiskies: Glenmorangie, Oban, Old Pulteney, Strathmill, Tamnavulin, Teaninich, Balbair and Craigellachie.
Jim Murray rates a similar bottled single malt at 88 while Michael Jackson gives it an 80. Both note that older versions of this malt were fairly heavily peated, (the maltster, trained on Islay, was pretty heavy-handed with the peat) but this has not been the case since it recommenced distilling in 1997 after stopping production in 1995. (Since our bottle is pre’95 expect some peat-punch.)
Our independent bottler describes the palate as having a, “structured malt, followed by white chocolate, and some serious smoke.” Jim Murray describes the palate as, “clean, fresh olorosso character, massively chewy with a fine malt thread,” and the body as a “really high grade malt with bags of character and attitude.”
Awards: Glen Garioch 8 Year Old
The first bottling since the re-opening of the distillery in 1997 after a refurbishment, won the under 12 Mainland (non-Speyside) Single Malt award in the World Whisky Awards 2007
At the 2004 San Francisco World Sprits competition Glen Garioch, took Gold for its 21 Year Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky and silver for both its 10 Year Old and 15 Year Old Highland Single Malt
“Whisky is liquid sunshine.” -George Bernard Shaw
We have one well-known Highland Scotch and one little-known Speysider as our supporting players this time around.
Ardbeg, which we sampled in our last tasting, is owned by Glenmorangie Plc., which also owns Glenmorangie 10-yr old, our well-known Scotch. Glenmorangie is the biggest selling single malt whisky in Scotland*. The name is pronounced glenMÒRANgee, and translates literally as “Glen of the big meadows,” although they say “Glen of Tranquility” on their label. They pioneered “official” cask-strength bottlings in the 1990s and also led the way in special wood finishes (port wood, Madeira, sherry, and French wines.)
Strangely enough, Glenmorangie has a special Missouri connection. They select their own trees for casks in the
Ozark mountains, season the wood by air-drying rather than kilning and loan the resultant casks to Jack Daniels for four years. After the bourbon is matured the casks are disassembled and shipped to the small town of Tain, Scotland, (population 4000) where they are reassembled and filled with new-make Glenmorangie.
Michael Jackson rates the Glenmorangie 10 at a score of 80. Of the nose he states: “spicy (cinnamon, walnut, sandalwood?), with some flowery sweetness. Fresh. A whiff of sea. Enticing.” Describing the palate, he says, “Spicy, flowery and malty-sweet tones that are creamy, almost buttery. A suggestion of bananas?”
Jim Murray rates this whisky a 94, describing the nose, “perhaps the most enigmatic aroma of them all; delicate yet assertive, sweet yet dry, young yet oaky; a malty tone poem.” He describes the palate thusly, “flaky oakiness throughout but there is an impossibly complex toastiness to the barley which seems to suggest the slightest hint of smoke.”
Our lesser-known Speyside whisky is Longmorn 15-yr old. It is pronounced LONGmorn. Mo-ernin-og, or Maernanog, was one of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the Picts of Moray. After his death in 625 AD, the feast day of St Marnan or Marnoch was celebrated in many Scottish towns. A small church, built about three miles outside Elgin, was dedicated to the saint and was known as Lann Marnoch - the church of St Marnoch. Over the centuries, the name evolved and was Anglicized to become Longmorn.
Longmorn has been described as “Speyside’s best-kept secret” - prized by blenders and savoured by connoisseurs, but not widely available to the general public as a bottled single malt. The distillery was built in 1894/95 by the Longmorn-Glenlivet Distillery Company. In 1970 it merged with Glenlivet and Glen Grant Distilleries Ltd to create Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd. Longmorn, is produced by Seagram (Chivas Brothers)
since 1977.
Murray rates this expression at a 93. He states the nose is, “curiously salty and coastal for a Speysider, really beautifully structured oak, but the malt offers both African violets and barley sugar.” To describe its palate he says, “your mouth aches from the enormity of the complexity while your tongue wipes grooves into the roof of your mouth [whatever that means]. Just about flawless bitter-sweet balance, the intensity of malt is enormous, yet – even after 15 years it maintains a cut-grass Speyside character.”
For perspective, Murray rates Longmorn 15 as highly as the Ardbeg 10 and the Bowmore 17 of our last tasting. Other Single Malts with the same rating (that are not so rare that tasting them is unlikely) are: The Balvenie Aged 15 Years Single Barrel, Glenfiddich 15 Years Solera Reserve, Old Malt Cask Highland Park aged 25 years and Springbank Wood Expression 12 Year Old Rum Wood.
Others in the range of Glenmorangie 10, (that are not so rare that tasting them is unlikely) are: Aberlour a’bunadh, 12 Year Old Stirling Silver Label, Bladnoch Aged 10 Years (Flora and Fauna), Dalwhinnie 15 Years Old and Bowmore Voyage.
Awards:
2006 Drammie award
Most under-rated Whisky-Longmorn 15
In 1994, Longmorn received a Gold Medal at the International Wine & Spirits Awards ceremony in the Guildhall, matching its success in 1993.
2006 San Francisco Spirits Competition
Gold Medal
Glenmorangie 12-Year Old Single Malt Scotch, Port Wood Finish
Glenmorangie 12-Year Old Single Malt Scotch, Sherry Wood Finish
Glenmorangie 12-Year Old Single Malt Scotch, Burgundy Wood Finish
Silver Medal
Glenmorangie 12 -ear Old Single Malt Scotch
International Wine & Spirits Awards 2006
• Scotch Whisky - Single Malt - Highland - Cask Finish - 30 YO
Glenmorangie 30 YO Oloroso Cask Finish, Scotland
2007 Whisky Magazine Gold Award Winners
Glenmorangie Original 43.00% Scotch whisky / Single malt. Highlands
*Best selling single malts around the world
Best selling single malt in world: Glenfiddich
Best selling single malt in Scotland: Glenmorangie
Best selling single malt in France: Aberlour
Best selling single malt in USA: Glenlivet. By volume Glenlivet is the third largest seller in the world
Best selling single malt in Spain: Cardhu
Best selling single malt in Italy: Glen Grant. By volume Glen Grant is the second largest seller
Best selling single malt in Canada: Glenfiddich
“Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite
and furthermore always carry a small snake.” -W.C. Fields, 1880-1946
1990 Glen Garioch 16-year old cask-strength,
single-cask bottling at 57.1%ABV, bottled from cask #10291 non-chill filtered
and uncolored bottling
Glenmorangie 10-yr old, 40%ABV
Longmorn 15-yr old, 43%ABV
Third Tasting - Glen Garioch, Glenmorangie, Longmorn
Thursday, April 26, 2007
April 26, 2007 meeting wrap up
Our 3rd meeting at John’s house, was attended by Mary, Dan, John, Pat, Myself and new member, Judi, who is Pat’s wife. Besim was missing in action. This was the first meeting for Pat and Judi. We tasted a Glenmorangie 10 (40% ABV), Longmorn 15 (43% ABV) and our star whisky, Glen Garioch 16 single-cask, cask-strength (57.1% ABV) in that order. The Glenmoragie is in Cluster H of David Wishart’s Classification of Whisky types along with the Glen Garioch, although the version he includes is not very likely a 16 year old. I think all agreed the Glenmorangie was fruity and woody, with Judi saying it had a very bourbon nose to it. It had a floral, sweet and vanilla palate and is certainly one of the very good single malts out there and perhaps as John said a good place to start if one were to introduce a novice single malt drinker. (At least I think he made the comment about Glenmorangie, the memory gets a little cloudy as we drink further into the evening.)
The Longmorn, I chose because in my limited experience, I thought this was closer to the flavor of the Glen Garioch than anything in the Cluster H grouping which included Balbair, Craigellachie, Oban, Old Pulteney, Strathmill, Tamnavulin and Teaninich.
Mary commented that its nose, which was very plesant cereal grain malty did not match the palate which seemed more harsh to her and others. My feeling was that it had a great full flavor and nose and was very complex and woody.
Finally, our star whisky, the Glen Garioch 16 did not disappoint. In both nose and palate a chocolate and sherry character come to the front with a massive flavor, to me, similar to the Longmorn, but more complex
Copyright 2010 Mark Friedman
