GLENMORANGIE has released the oldest whisky in its history; aged for half a century and limited to 149 numbered bottles worldwide, Glenmorangie 50 Years Old offers a rare taste of the distillery’s past.
The whisky was made using some of the last barley malted on the floor of Glenmorangie’s Highland distillery before its floor maltings closed in 1977. Distilled in the mid-’70s, the spirit was initially matured in bourbon hogsheads and first-fill Oloroso sherry butts.
In 1999, a small parcel was brought together in a single hogshead, where it stayed for another 25 years. Bottled at 45.7% ABV cask strength, the finished whisky has aromas of baked orange, sultana and nutmeg, followed by flavours of toffee, Assam tea leaves, clove and oak tannin.
The making of Glenmorangie 50 Years Old’s box; made by Peter and Laura Pincus
Dr Bill Lumsden MBE, the distillery’s director of whisky creation, says, “The release of the Glenmorangie 50 Years Old has to be one of my proudest creations. I often wondered if the day would ever come that we’d be able to bottle a Glenmorangie with such a mighty age statement.”
A whisky this rare was never going to arrive in an ordinary box, so for its presentation, Glenmorangie worked with American ceramic artist Peter Pincus and his partner Laurie, who spent more than three years developing 149 porcelain vessels, each cast, sanded, and painted by hand.
The making of Glenmorangie 50 Years Old’s box; made by Peter and Laura Pincus
The making of Glenmorangie 50 Years Old’s box; made by Peter and Laura Pincus
The design took shape after the artists visited Glenmorangie’s distillery and tasted the whisky. What followed was the creation of 50 bespoke colour pigments, used to give each vessel its own pattern; together, all 149 form a tessellated wall titled Together in Spirit. “Each of the vessels we have created links to its neighbours to create a collective masterpiece, but each also has its own identity,” says Pincus.
It’s a fitting way to present a whisky that cannot be made again; from the barley used to create it to its 50 years in the cask, this expression captures a bygone chapter in the distillery’s history.
by Felicity Carter
Glenmorangie 50 Years Old is priced at £25,800 and is available through the Moët Hennessy Private Client Team, the Glenmorangie Distillery Visitor Centre in Tain and by private enquiry at glenmorangie.com.