Review 219: Glenmorangie Astar

Review 219

9/3/14

Glenmorangie Astar: 57.1% abv

Background: Another review of a Glenmorangie from the KCM crew. There has been a lot of buzz from the Whisky Bible about Glenmorangie Ealanta, so why not do that? Well, because this is what we bought, so this is what you get. The highlight of Astar, a cask strength monster from the Highland distillery is the oak casks, that come from the Ozarks of Missouri. This staves are then air dried for 24 months (or 2 years for the conversion-challenged among us), which is an extremely positive mark on the cask quality. The assembled casks are heavily toasted, and Tennessee whisky is aged in these casks for 4 years. Finally, Astar makes its way into the cask and out spits a cask strength, natural color, non-chill filtered beast. The only thing that Glenmorangie doesn’t tell you, to their fault, is the age of this work. Rumor has it the whisky might be around 10 years old. So what now? Let’s figure out what this whisky is like.

Straight

Nose: Right off the bat, the first impression on the nose is heavy whiskey, like Jack Daniels. Cream and vanilla are prevalent at first, with mild malt aromas coming through subtly. There is some banana and coconut that pulls into the strong nose. As the nose starts to open up, the oak is pretty strong on the nose. If you really struggle, there is a bit of fall spices that can be smelled on the whisky. The nose is relatively simple though.

Arrival: The arrival starts with a boozy Tennessee whiskey flavor, with sweet malt and corn flavor. There is some bitter spice as well, but the flavor quickly dissipates after this. There is a little bit of hot cinnamon.

Body: The body introduces a savory flavor into the mix, still sustaining the Tennessee whiskey flavor and strong hints of vanilla. There is bitter, sappy oak that is dominating the flavor.

Finish: The finish is hugely oaky, with American whiskey and vanilla up front. The finish is hot and spicy, with bitter black peppercorn, cinnamon, and slight savory notes. There is some dry vegetal notes, with a slight smokiness that is reminiscent of burning tobacco.

With Water

Nose: The nose hasn’t opened up terribly well after adding water. The stubborn aromas don’t seem to be breaking free from the whisky. Unfortunately, the complexity is still lacking in this portion of the whisky.

Arrival: The arrival has allowed the whisky to really present itself well. Complexity is shy, but the Tennessee character is definitely well defined now. The spices are more bold and prominent. In general, the arrival is substantially more enjoyable. There is a bit of pear present now that wasn’t detected before.

Body: The body actually reveals some interesting complexities that weren’t prevalent before. There is a lot of herbal and vegetal notes, with blends of complex fruits, including grapes, pear, and nectarines. 

Finish:  The finish is still intense and spicy, with the toasted oak bursting through. The spices are huge, but not terribly distinguishable. The vegetal notes in this whisky are more prominent than before, with a malty aftertaste that reminds you you’re drinking a Scotch, and not an American whiskey. 

Final Comments: It might look like you’ve seen a rushed review, but that’s not terribly true. This is definitely a challenging whisky to deal with, but in a blind tasting, you might mistake this for a bourbon or a Tennessee whiskey. Does that make this a bad Scotch? Not nearly. But it does not give you the classic Glenmorangie fruity, floral whisky experience you might expect. It also lacks severely in complexity. That being said, this is a very quality whisky, and the recipe is done pretty well right. It is also respectable that Glenmorangie provided a lot of information on the whisky. Thus, you might struggle with whether or not to buy a bottle of this gem. Our suggestion is to steer clear of this respectable identity crisis unless you have nothing better to do with your money.

Why you’d buy it: It is a bourbon-lover’s Scotch, and with water it is really an enjoyable catch.

                                                                                                          

Why you wouldn’t: It really doesn’t justify its pricetag by any stretch of the imagination.

Score: 8.0 /10

Review 108: Glenmorangie Nectar D'Or 12 Yr

Review 108

11/18/12

Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or 12 Yr: 46% abv

In our third whisky of a three part evaluation of Glenmorangie, we look at the Sauternes cask-aged Scotch alternative. Sauternes is a light wine generally described by its high acidity and relative sweetness. That makes us wonder if this will play into the whisky at all (spoiler alert, it does). On the nose of this one, you’ll get honey right off the bat, sweetness associated with sugarcane, vanilla, sweet apple, and slight malt. 

The nose is soft and delicate, but after adding water becomes a little more fruity, adding pear, stronger grain, specifically barley and wheat. The arrival contains soft woodiness, vanilla, some slight white chocolate, and honey. After water, there is an addition of a lot of vanilla that starts being added as the whisky opens up. The body contains complex flavors of barley malt, tartness, lemon, slight brine and saltiness, grapes, pears, and a noted large amount of acidity, which tends to dominate the flavor. After adding water, there is a decrease of tartness. The finish tended to be the speaking point of this whisky.  There are some unique points to the finish. Interesting notes included white chocolate, light nuttiness, barley grain, tartness, salt, pear, melon, and acidic white grape. After water, the taste of vanilla, cream, and malt got bigger, and there was a very little spice to be tasted. 

In general, the character of this Malt whisky show huge reflections of the Sauternes wine that helped to shape its palate. It is mellow and light, carries the white wine flavors with acidity, and is not terribly complex. It is pretty smooth and water works well with it. There are some unique flavors involved with the whisky. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 104: Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban 12 Yr

Review 104

10/31/12

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban 12 yr: 46% abv

So we figured we had such good luck with the last one, we figured we would give it another go. Does Glenmorangie have three gems in a row? Let’s start with what Quinta Ruban is. At a nearly identical price to the Lasanta, the Quinta Ruban is a similar Malt with a different view. Instead of being aged in sherry casks, the whisky is aged in port wine casks. If you don’t know what port wine is like, then please see our Terra d’Oro review of a Zinfindel Port. So what’s the difference between the two? Let’s just compare from tasting notes. 

On the nose, there is a big malt and floral character to the spirit, along with interesting notes of red wine, wood, red grape. There is a wheatiness and light subtle vanilla to the nose. After adding water, the nose opens up and contributes a larger spiciness and sweet malt to the nose. Nothing about this is overtly complex, but we dug further. On the arrival, there is a very slight peat smoke to it which we found peculiar with Glenmorangie. There is a combination of brininess and sweetness to the arrival, but no distinctive flavors jumped out to the group. 

The body carries more definition, carrying some unique fruit flavors to go along with the malty character. There is a sweetness and dark fruit flavor to this malt. Among the flavors, one can find dark chocolate, cranberry, cinnamon, raspberry, sweet citrus notes, and strawberry. After you expose this malt to water, you’ll start to see ginger and molasses come out. Again, we were not blown away by the complexity of this malt, but it did represent some form of uniqueness. The finish was much more detailed, but represented a different side of this whisky. It came off as briny and salty in the beginning with caramel, black pepper, cinnamon, slight smokiness, strawberry, and some cabernet. With water though, we can pick up some more flavors, including the sweet molasses notes we got in the body, some hazelnut and cherry notes, and an Old Pulteney-esque saltiness, which has a mixture of refreshing and dry impressions to it. And just to mix it up, we even caught some slight notes of bubblegum. 

The group had a couple of comments to make about this malt. For starters, the malt took on a lot of different characters, with some spiciness, salt, hotness, and dark fruity berries to it. The group described the malt as being unsorted and confused, like it was having an identity crisis and didn’t know who it wanted to be. Although there was a large discussion on scoring, the group agreed that it didn’t measure up to Glenmorangie’s other statements and it’s lackluster complexity didn’t do it any favor. For a bargain malt, this would be an excellent choice, but at a price of around $65-70 a bottle, we would expect much more from it. 

Score: 7.75/10

Review 103: Glenmorangie Lasanta 12 Yr

Review 103

10/29/12

Glenmorangie Lasanta 12 Year: 46% abv

So, if you look back, Glenmorangie is a single malt Scotch distillery, and they like to tell us that they have the tallest stills in Scotland. The stills are probably not relevant to you, but let’s take a quick second to discuss why that matters. Because of the science of distillation, flux and still geometry make huge impacts on what’s in the still and how long it spends there. So what do taller stills do? Well, in Glenmorangie they generally make a lighter, more floral and sweet whisky. We can talk more about science later. Class dismissed. So this Lasanta stuff...what’s different from this and the Original Glenmorangie. Besides being 12 years instead of 10 years old, it is aged in a different cask. In fact, that cask is an Oloroso Sherry Cask. We like those casks, and we like the effect it has on whisky. So how about this one? 

Well, on the nose, you get a blend of flavors, greeted by the floral and light oak scents you would expect from Glenmorangie, but also big maltiness, grain, vanilla, honey, caramel apple, red grape and sweet, sweet sherry. Ahh! How refreshing. So then we drink. In the arrival, you’ll start to understand this whisky, with instant notes of citrus, apples, malt grain, gingerbread, and allspice. The arrival is crisp and refreshing, and after putting water in it, honey comes out. 

The body is moderate, with wheat, malt, sherry, wood flavors, honey, hay, caramel, gingerbread and allspice. Again, this is a pleasant, but easy taste. The finish is largely complex. There is malt, caramel, dry oak, sherry, raspberry, slightly tart cherry which becomes sweeter over time, and confectioner’s sugar. After adding water, the whisky softens up in general, but adds some spicy fruits and more vanilla to it. There is a bigger wheat flavor and less malt and sherry. In the finish, there is also a dark chocolate bitterness. 

Overall, we like the fact that Glenmorangie is bottling at 46%, and it pays off. This has good flavors and good balance, although complexity isn’t groundbreaking. This is a strong, solid statement. Worth a try if you like sherry-aged whiskys. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 73: Glenmorangie The Original

Review 73

6/28/12

Glenmorangie The Original: 43% abv

This is a single malt Scotch, and one of the better 10 year old Scotches on the market. And when we start introducing more Scotches as reviews, we will try to make it very evident that there is indeed a correct pronunciation and most people screw that up. Glenmorangie is pronounced like an orange would be: like Glen-M-Orange-ee. At ten years, any Scotch is young, as a Scotch tends to mature fully at about 25 years of aging. So how does such a young Scotch compare to the rest? 

Well, on the nose, you get sweet aromas of honey, pear, white grape, molasses, and a sugary character. We also noted an odd presence of agave that you might find in a tequila, but it was faint. Now the taste, that become more complex, citing vanilla notes, malt, honey, wheat, slight mixed berries, light melon character, and hints of creaminess and spiciness to compliment the rest of it. 

The taste is fantastic, but still lacking in the deep complexity you'd expect from a quality Scotch. It is younger though, so it doesn't absorb all the oak character that it should, but retains a certain youthful freshness to it. The finish contains honey, agave, ginger, apple, some sweet maple notes, cherry and even some almonds as well. The finish is long and enjoyable, and we really liked basking in it's complexity and presence. This is a young Scotch, but it's one of the best, fighting 10 year olds like Macallan with a lot of flavor and presence.

Score: 9.0/10