The Glenmorangie distillery in the Northern Highlands of Scotland can
be credited with the popularisation of 'finished malt whisky' - although
I'm not sure if they were also the first to apply the technique of double
maturation in another cask. Around 1995 Glenmorangie released three
different ' wood finishes' - a Port Finish, a Madeira Finish and a Sherry
Finish. Later on some more finished 'limited releases' were bottled.

For a few years they were virtually the only distillery to use 'deviant'
casks, but around the year 2000 more and more distilleries started to
experiment. Particularly Bruichladdich and Edradour turned into radical
finishing freaks, taking the concept further that Glenmorangie ever did.
Personally, I prefer some of these 'finishes' to the regular product...

But of course, Glenmorangie is more than the premier purveyor of 'finished' whiskies in Scotland.
Their history started not unlike many of its Scottish competitors - in the nineteenth century. Not far from
the site of the Balblair distillery (founded half a century earlier in 1790) William and John Mathesen built
the 'Morangie' farm distillery in 1843. William had been one of the co-owners of Balblair but apparently
he wanted to strike out on his own. The Mathesen brothers selected a site with a long history of illicit
distillation; there are claims about whisky distillation in the area as far back as 1738 and even 1703.
However, actual production of malt whisky at Glenmorangie didn't start until November 1849.

In 1887 the Glenmorangie Distillery Company Ltd. was founded and the distillery
was rebuilt. In 1918 the distillery was sold to 2 partners; MacDonald & Muir Ltd.
and Durham - circa two decades later MacDonald & Muir became full owners.
Somewhere along the way, the name of the parent company was changed to
Glenmorangie plc by the MacDonald family. They decided to sell the company
(that also owned the Ardbeg and Glen Moray distilleries) to LVMH in 2004.

Production-wise, a lot has changed at Glenmorangie over the years.
For one thing, the number of stills was expanded from two to four in 1980,
which was also the time they stopped malting their own barley. Glenmorangie
managed to survive the whisky crisis of the early 1980's with flying colours; in
1990 the number of stills was expanded again to a grand total of eight stills.
 
Those eight stills enable Glenmorangie to produce a whopping four million
litres of pure alcohol each year. For a long time a lot of the malt whisky they
produced was consumed within Scotland, but now it's a world wide brand .

1) At a height of more than 26 feet, the stills at Glenmorangie are the tallest in the Scotch whisky industry.

2) More trivia about Glenmorangie will be added later...
 

Here's are my notes on the 'core range' OB's, followed by a selection of my personal favourits.

Glenmorangie NAS 'Artisan Cask' (46%, OB, Bottled 2004)
Nose: Wow! Very expressive. Fruity with vanilla and a hint of dust. Then some glue elements.
This reminds me a lot of a rye whisky! Clean. Some peculiar sour notes in the background. Vinegar?
Sorrel? Then sweeter with honey. Not complex at first, but very pleasant.
Taste: A slick, smooth sweetness develops into a rough centre. Short, dry finish.
Again, not unlike a good rye whisky or bourbon. Also a hint of blueberries and 'fruits de bois' on the palate.
Score: 80 points - for me it loses quite a few points in the finish, but other maniacs liked it better.
Well, I guess 'Artisan cask' sounds fancier than 'bourbon cask'.

Glenmorangie 10yo (43%, OB Bottled +/- 2002, Duty Free, Litre bottle)
Nose: Sweetish. Soft & spicy. A little grainy. Pinch of salt. Rhubarb? Oily & nutty.
Hop. Faint fruits after a while. Heather honey. Chloride. Maybe some liquorice.
Faint hint of something coastal? Yes, absolutely. And is that peat? I think so.
Taste: Sweetish start. Sour & bitter - like Rhubarb? Hops in the finish - beer-like.
Bourbony. Unfortunately, the palate is flat and superficial. Wood. Fresh oak?
Score: 74 points - the nose is fine but the finish is rather nasty. It loses points here.

Glenmorangie NAS Port Wood Finish (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 2001, 100cl)
Nose: Very complex! Subtle, yet expressive. Sherryish and fruity. Great!
Dried apples. Coffee beans? Strong perfumy episodes. Smokier over time.
Taste: Hmmm... Seems much 'flatter' than my previous bottle from +/- 1998. Fruity sweetness.
Fresh episodes; eucalyptus in the finish. Nothing very special, to tell you the truth.
Score: 81 points - great nose, average palate. Not quite as 'porty' as my first bottle, it seems.

Glenmorangie 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2005, Taiwan)
Nose: Light and grainy, what I would expect in a 'regular' Glenmorangie. Faintly sweet with a hint of apple.
Some chloride in the background - a 'Morangie 'marker' for me. Gains some 'gravitas' over time. Mellows out.
Perhaps a hint of spices behind the general fruitiness after ten minutes. Drops off after fifteen minutes.
Taste: Apple again. The sweetness dissipates in the centre but returns in the finish. And again (dried) apple.
Score: 76 points - I was pleasantly surprised, but it lost two points in the finish; a smidgen too woody for me.

Glenmorangie 12yo 'Golden Rum Cask Finish' (40%, OB)
Nose: Lightly fruity with some soft grainy overtones. Something vaguely coastal?
Restrained. Citrus. I had a very hard time picking up any distinguishing marks.
Smoke? More organics with time. It took me some time before I started liking it.
Taste: Blank start - bitter but growing sweeter and fruitier towards the centre.
Plenty of heat, but it remains flat and slightly soapy. Whiffs of smoke. Dry finish.
Score: 73 points - not especially my cup of tea and it loses points on the palate.
Was this a 'rescue attempt' for some bad casks?

Glenmorangie 1993/2005 Truffle Oak (60.5%, OB, 886 Bottles)
Nose: Sweet. Vanilla. Hint of Chartreuse. Marzipan with water. Not too expressive, I'd say.
Taste: Way too hot at cask strength. Gets fruitier with a splash of water. Quite drinkable.
Score: 83 points - this is a pretty solid offering from Glenmorangie, maybe topping the 18yo?

Glenmorangie 15yo Sauternes Finish (46%, OB, Bottled +/- 2004)
Nose: Fruity with a hint of diesel in the background. The wine moves to the foreground. Vinegar? A little odd.
Gravel? Perhaps this is right up the alley of some wine lovers, but it smells too sharp and sour for my tastes.
It opens up and sweetens out a bit with time. Metallic. The spectrum widens a bit, but remains very subtle.
Too subtle for my tired old nose most of the time, but it keeps developing. Copper. Romanian sausages?
Taste: Smooth start, fairly weak centre, simple finish with the tannins marching forward in the end. Very winey.
Score: 78 points - but that's mainly because it's interesting; the winey profile isn't really up my alley.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Glenmorangie whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

During the 1990's Glenmorangie was one of the few malt whisky distilleries with a well oiled
marketing machine behind them, like Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Springbank and the Classic Malts.

After the success the 'mother brand' had with finishes, 'daughter distillery' Glen Moray started to release their own finishes as well around the year 2000. For me personally, these didn't work as well as the Glenmorangie finishes. While the fairly clean and subtle regular 10-12yo whisky from Glenmorangie benefited from the extra maturation, the fuller Speyside malts from Glen Moray lost some of their 'edge' after weird finishes like Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc.

For my own tastes the PR language sometimes
was a tad too oily, but you can't argue with the
numbers; Glenmorangie is now a top selling malt.

But is it any good? 
Well, the 'house style' of most of the
regular line-up is a tad light for my own
tastes, but for 'brand' blend drinkers it
is a perfect 'gateway malt' - a strong
brand they can stick to with a couple of
interesting expressions that could lead
them to new malty discoveries later on.

As for the finishes: they seem to have a hard time achieving batch consistency, so buying a bottle is Russian roulette...