'It’s an unashamedly old fashioned whisky' - Glenmorangie release 50-year-old single malt
The oldest expression of Glenmorangie, a 50 year old, has been released. Rosalind Erskine spoke to head of whisky creation, Dr Bill Lumsden about his journey with the whisky over 25 years and working with acclaimed ceramic artists Peter and Laurie Pincus
Glenmorangie’s oldest whisky to date, a 50 year old, could so easily have not happened.
Around 25 years ago, a newly appointed whisky maker, Dr Bill Lumsden wasn’t convinced about really old whiskies, nor was he sure that the distillery’s light spirit, created in those famous tall stills, would stand the literal test of time. But in what’s now become known as his uniquely experimental style, Dr Lumsden put aside some old Glenmorangie from the 1970s to see if he could match his contemporaries at The Dalmore and The Macallan, and one day create a very old whisky that would be different to these other brands. It would not be a disappointment.
Dr Lumsden said: “Around 25 years ago I was looking at number of things, and I had not long moved into this role after being distillery manager at Glenmorangie and, first of all, I was looking at releasing a 25 year old Glenmorangie, which at that time would have been the oldest in the range. But I was also looking slightly enviously at some of the releases that my good friends, Richard Paterson at The Dalmore and Bob Dalgarno at The Macallan were making for their brands.
“We didn’t really have anything in our stock profile for Glenmorangie anyway that was that sort of age. The backdrop to that was that I was lucky enough to try some of these old bottlings because we’re all great friends in my peer group in the industry. But I was always a bit disappointed by them as generally I’m not a huge fan of very old whisky because I think it often becomes woody and dry and it’s not always a good representation of the brand that it comes from.
“I decided that I wanted to see how far I could push the envelope with Glenmorangie. The fact that Glenmorangie’s spirit is so delicate because of the tall stills, it really didn’t lend itself to a long maturation anyway. So I put a few batches of very old Glenmorangie from the 1970s and transferred some of it into different cask types with a view of trying to continue the ageing numerically but also try and continue it without completely dominating the spirit with the taste of the wood.”
It was these batches that became the foundation of the new 50-year-old malt, with “a couple of very special hogsheads” made for Dr Lumsden at the Speyside Cooperage aiding his creation.
He added: “ I sent them (the cooperage) about half a dozen old ex bourbon barrels that I’d already used two or three times and they broke them down and rebuilt them into two or three hogsheads which were very tightly coopered to make sure that nothing would leak. I didn’t want much more wood extractive, I wanted to allow it to oxidatively age. I was very deliberately targeting an older Glenmorangie but not necessarily 50. That was a nice, happy coincidence.”
Dr Lumsden he was “very happy” with the three elements that make up the 50 year old.
He added: “The first of these is it has a nice deep mellow character that you get and people would expect from a very old whisky compared to the fresh vibrancy of our 12 year old. It had that.
“It had this nice roundness to it that’s hard to describe technically but it’s something that the late great Jim Swan first taught me and he talked about the blended expression which is an idea that all the different flavour elements beautifully integrate together so that no one flavour dominates, and that’s the ultimate aim. It’s subtly sherried and it’s even subtly smoky because it used the distillery’s own floor malted barley. It still has some nice fruity notes in there but they’re all integrated together. And the third element, which I always look for, I believe that people will recognise it as a Glenmorangie. To me, this is a very unashamedly old-fashioned tasting whisky and if people are buying something like that then they would expect that in the taste profile.”
This landmark whisky - of which there are only 149 bottles - is presented in unique ceramic vessels, created for the brand by Peter and Laurie Pincus. After visiting the distillery and tasting the whisky, the couple and their studio team spent the next 1,000 days handcrafting these bespoke ceramic display vessels to honour the rare whisky within.
Dedicating over three years to the project, the couple pioneered new ceramic techniques and cast and sanded each piece to perfection. Inspired by the palette of tasting notes in the whisky, they created 50 bespoke colour pigments to form a completely individual pattern on each vessel, applied by hand. Each ceramic vessel created fits together to display a tessellated wall of art, titled ‘Together in Spirit.’
Mr Pincus said: “I’ve been into whisky since I met Laurie’s dad. I didn’t have a dad growing up and I met Laurie when I was 20 and the first thing her dad said to me was ‘if you’re going to be around then you’re going to understand what whisky is, and you’re going to have to like it.’ It didn’t take long, probably one dram and I was in. So this has been something that has been special to me on a personal level, on a brand level and on an academic level. It was a pretty irresistible and shocking thing for us to be able to participate in.”
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He added: I do believe that it’s a unique contribution to ceramics and a unique contribution to the whisky world and so I just feel grateful to have been a part of it.”
Glenmorangie 50 Years Old will be available from September through the Moët Hennessy Private Client Team, the Distillery Visitor Centre in Tain, and select retailers including, with private enquiries also welcome at glenmorangie.com. It is priced at £25,800.
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