In the latest of his monthly instalments, Charles Maclean gives his thoughts on the Malt of the Month: Glenmorangie Finealta - a World Exclusive for this month. Charles also explores the evolution of the Glenmorangie Distillery.

Tasting Note:

Deep amber, with noticeable viscosity, the first scents you pick up are waxy and fruity with light vanilla – tinned peaches and ice-cream – with a bosky sprinkle of spice. After a while a delicate citric note appears (mandarin oranges – one of Glenmorangie’s key-notes – and lime flowers) and traces of planed oak, or maybe a subtle thread of wood-smoke? A drop of water relaxes the spirit and opens mineralic doors: bath salts, Love-Heart sweeties (sherbet) and a hint of lime.
A voluptuous texture, mouth-filling, with a clean, sweet start, a light citric acidity in the middle (limes again?), drying towards the end. Dry overall, with a touch of allspice and nutmeg and powdered ginger (especially in the aftertaste), and a ghost of mossy smokiness in the medium-length finish.

Occasion: Instead of afternoon tea – preferably in The Savoy Hotel!

Comment: ‘Elegant’ (the translation of ‘Finealta’ from Gaelic) sums it up perfectly. Stylish, under-stated, reserved. An Audrey Hepburn of malts!

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Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s Head of Distilling and Whisky Creation, and his colleague Rachel Barrie, the Company’s Master Blender, are probably the Scotch whisky industry’s leading experimenters, continually seeking ways to add extra flavour dimensions to the spirit.

Last year, for example, they came up with ‘Sonnalta PX’, where the mature whisky had been re-racked into Pedro Ximenez casks (an intensely sweet sherry) to add a further level of flavour.

Earlier expressions are ‘Signet’ (where a portion of the spirit was made from ‘chocolate’ malt - a heavily kilned style of malt, used by some brewers, but never, to my knowledge, by distillers – and vatted with mature Glenmorangie from the 1970s, 80s and 90s);‘Astar’, which  replaced the popular ‘Artisan Cask’ expression, where the spirit is matured exclusively in specially made air-dried, slow-grown American oak casks and ‘Quarter Century’ (a 25 Years Old limited to 20 casks per batch; ex-Bourbon, ex-Oloroso, a little ex-Burgundy).

The latest item from Dr. Bill’s cabinet of curiosities is ‘Finealta’, joins ‘Sonnalta PX’ as the second member of the limited (and therefore highly collectable) ‘Private Edition’ range. The name means ‘Elegant’ in Gaelic.

This expression was inspired by an order for casks of Glenmorangie from The Savoy Hotel in 1903, and was offered to guests in its legendary American Bar – quite an accolade, since the Savoy was the acme of style and good taste. Acknowledged as ‘Britain’s first luxury hotel’, it had been founded fourteen years earlier by Richard D’Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The manager was César Ritz and the head chef August Escoffier – “the king of chefs and the chef of kings”. Famous contemporary guests included King Edward VII, Enrico Caruso, Nellie Melba, H.G. Wells and Claude Monet.

“We thought long and hard about what that whisky might have tasted like”, Rachel Barrie told me. “For one thing, it would certainly be slightly smoky. In those days we dried our own malt over peat fires. We had our own peat banks at Forsinard in Sutherland, and at the end of the distilling season – in May – the maltmen were dispatched there for ten days to cut peats, staying with local crofters and shepherds. The work was hard, but the parties were legendary! Some of the men would return in the autumn and load the dry peats onto railway wagons, to be shipped to the distillery”.

“As well as being slightly smoky, the whisky would mainly have been matured in ex-sherry casks, and in American plain oak casks (ex-Bourbon casks were not used in 1900 at this time). So we made some lightly peated Glenmorangie and matured it partly in ex-Oloroso sherry butts and partly in, slow-grown, air-dried American white oak barrels.

“We are pretty happy with the result!” 

So is Daniel Baerntuther, current manager of the American Bar. “The introduction of Finealta coincides with The Savoy’s reopening on 10.10.10, so our guests can experience a true ‘taste from the past’… In restoring The Savoy, we have been careful to preserve the atmosphere, elegancy and unashamedly old-fashioned glamour of the hotel – and Glenmorangie Fiealta fits perfectly with this!”

The Glenmorangie Company has a long tradition of exploring wood influences. A former managing director of the company, Neil McKerrow, commissioned pioneering research into the subject from Pentlands Scotch Whisky Research in 1986/87 – Pentlands was the support laboratory to the independent whisky companies, and is now the Scotch Whisky Research Institute. Rachel Barrie was part of the Pentlands team which worked on this project.

From a commercial perspective, being able to offer one or more styles from a single distillery increased Glenmorangie’s product range. The first expression to apply the technique (finishing for 18 months in ex-Oloroso butts – and using the term ‘finishing’ for the first time on the black label) was the 1963 Vintage released in 1987. This was a legendary whisky – one of the best I have ever tasted – and was soon followed by ‘Portwood’, ‘Sherrywood’ and ‘Madeira Finish’ and then a slew of exotics, some of which had been re-racked before 1990 - which goes to show the company’s early commitment to wood finishing.

‘Finealta’ takes the idea to a new level, adjusting the flavour of the spirit as well as employing an unusual wood policy. The result is supremely elegant.