Glenmorangie has put the oldest whisky in its history on sale, a 50 Year Old single malt priced at £25,800 a bottle. The release, launched in late September, has been overseen by Dr Bill Lumsden, the distillery’s head of whisky creation, who first earmarked the casks after he arrived at the Tain site in 1995.
The spirit dates back to some of the final batches of barley malted on Glenmorangie’s own floor maltings, which were decommissioned in 1977. It was distilled in the company’s tall copper stills and filled in the mid-1970s into bourbon hogsheads and first-fill Oloroso sherry butts. When Lumsden joined as distillery manager, the whisky was already well aged, and he picked out a handful of casks he believed could keep improving. About 25 years ago, while he was working on the recipe for a 25 year old, he set aside some of the oldest stock to find out how far the spirit could be taken.
Lumsden has called the whisky one of his proudest creations. He said he had often wondered whether Glenmorangie would ever bottle a malt with such a large age statement, and that the old floor-malted barley has given it “rare hints of smoke”. At the launch tasting he spoke about texture, saying he wanted to keep the liveliness and fragrance he sees as central to the distillery’s house style. He described the project as a labour of love.
Rosalind Erskine, food and drink editor at The Scotsman, was among a small group invited to try it. She found an unexpected minty nose, which regular drinkers may recognise from the Glenmorangie 18 year old, along with powdered Turkish delight and a light ash note from the floor-malted barley. On the palate the sherry casks bring toffee and raisin, though less strongly than the deep colour suggests. She also picked up a mineral edge, a trace of smoke, some creaminess, pepper and spice, and stone fruit including apricot, with candied orange peel and honey. The finish is long, sweet and gently spiced.
Bottles are available through the Moët Hennessy Private Client Team, the Glenmorangie Distillery Visitor Centre in Tain and a small number of retailers, with private enquiries handled through glenmorangie.com. Erskine noted that the ash and smoke from the floor-malted barley give the whisky a character that newer Glenmorangie releases no longer have, since the maltings closed in 1977.
