Glenmorangie Bacalta / 70cl

Product Information

Glenmorangie claims that it is made as it always has been by the ‘16 men of Tain’ but one name more than any other is synonymous with the distillery today: the aforementioned Dr Bill Lumsden. He was the distillery manager from 1995 to 1998, and from then head of distilling and whisky creation for everything in the Glenmorangie Company’s portfolio. Under Dr Lumsden the cask finishes continued such as Sauternes barrel Nectar D'Or, Port cask The Quinta Ruban 14 Year Old and sherry-finished Lasanta 12 Year Old. He’s also been at the forefront of experimentation earlier in the whisky making stage with products like Signet made using chocolate malt, Cadboll made with single estate barley, and A Tale of the Forest which uses barley kilned with botanicals. Palate: Thin body. A mild initial tongue burn gives way to more honey sweetness. Golden raisins again, lemon bundt cake, cake frosting, candied ginger, and orange creamsicle. Successful products are worth more than what it costs the consumer to buy them. That’s also good! If it wasn’t the case, nobody would buy them.”

It remained under the same ownership for the next 90 years, but Glenmorangie still suffered from the ups and downs that plagued the industry throughout the 20th century. The American market was particularly important for Macdonald & Muir with their Highland Queen blended whisky, named after Mary Queen of Scots. Consequently, Glenmorangie struggled throughout Prohibition, which came into force in 1919, and the distillery closed in 1931, only to reopen in 1936. Glenmorangie Bacalta is the 8th annual release in Glenmorangie's Private Edition range. Bacalta is Scots Gaelic for ‘baked’ and the name refers to the casks that were used to finish the whisky. First matured in ex-bourbon barrels, the whisky was then finished in bespoke, heavily toasted American oak casks that were seasoned with Malmsey wine (a sweet and highly prized Madeira wine) and then baked to maturity within as the casks lay exposed to the sun. Bottled at 46%. So what’s the story this time? Well the whisky – which I believe was 12 years old matured in ex-bourbon casks – has been finished in “sun-baked” Malmsey Madeira casks. Dr. Bill Lumsden arranged for American oak casks to be made and heavily toasted, before being seasoned with Malmsey wine and… left to bake in the heat of Madeira’s sun. I imagine this is more than being left around the cooperage due to some administrative error. (And to be clear, staves already tend to bake in the sunlight, but I suspect this is a different set-up.) The casks were then emptied… how precious was that Madeira to be disregarded so easily in the name of Scotch whisky! Nose: Raw honey, light jammy resin (think marmalade), and sultanas (golden raisins) greet the nose. Deeply sweet, this is unarguably a dessert whisky, and bears (so far) a striking resemblance to Glenmorangie’s Nectar D’Or. There may be more depth here, however, with an interplay of bubble gum, tutti-fruiti, glazed scones, and apricot jam. Yum.

Top Whiskies

But the ‘80s and ‘90s saw a gradual move away from blends to concentrate on single malts. For many years, the 10 Year Old expression was the only one bottled by the distillery but in 1987 Glenmorangie released a 1963 vintage single malt which was finished in oloroso sherry casks. This was followed in the early ‘90s by a Port cask-finished whisky and then a plethora of other cask finishes like Madeira, sherry and Sauternes. The switch to single malts was completed in 2014 when the Bailie Nicol Jarvie was discontinued. The Glenmorangie Private Editions are basically experiments – some more successful than others. (I wasn’t a fan of the previous Private Editions release – Glenmorangie Milsean.) Dr Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s director of distilling, can have a whale of a time adding whiskies to different casks.

Nose: Fragrant, honeyed and sweet with ripe apricots, mead-like, and a curious minerally/flinty note, followed by sweet white chocolate, malty/biscuit notes, meadow flowers and some peach crumble. You pay the price to ride the ride – so you’ve decided that it’s “worth it” to you in that sense – but I don’t think it follows that people are necessarily thinking that what they’re buying is a fair trade for their money so much as a case of not looking/going to other options (yet). They want a whisky, they’re curious about this one or that new one on the basis that it might be a little different than what they’ve already tried and just buy it, most without ever having tried it beforehand. Oh and hey, LVMH, don’t think I haven’t noticed that these annual “money pit” special editions have been stealthily increasing in price every year. That said, I guess one shouldn’t be looking at products from Louis Vuitton for value. Finish: Medium-long and warming. Raw honey pervades, and fades with more apricot, marzipan, and absolutely no bitterness. Decadent.

Reviews

The Internet, the wisdom and reliability of which Shall Not Be Questioned, has revealed that Bacalta (like most Glenmorangie Private Edition releases) began as 10 year-old “Original” Glenmorangie, and was aged for 2 years in the madeira casks. We can be reasonably assured that the whisky is thus 12 years of age. Without an age statement on the bottle, however, that could all be a giant lie. Caveat emptor, and all that. With Water: A few drops of water seem to have no effect, except maybe to make the liquid’s texture on the tongue more silky or syrupy (odd). Water is fully not necessary with this, and I prefer it at the bottled strength. I think it’s fair to say that there are legitimate higher costs associated with smaller releases. I also think it’s fair to say that, given the proportionality, it isn’t these higher associated costs that are primarily driving prices ON these smaller releases these days. Both are respectable ideas, and I didn’t take the Noob as saying that associated costs WERE the main drivers on present pricing (and “induced” rarity is a legitimate point that almost nobody talks about).