Glenmorangie’s New 50-Year-Old Whisky is Its Oldest To Date

When you consider the ongoing race to release the oldest whisky ever bottled, a mark that was recently set by the Balvenie’s 88-year-old single malt, 50 years is not really all that old. But that’s actually a good thing, in terms of flavor, and Glenmorangie’s new half-century-old whisky—its oldest to date—is proof.

Glenmorangie is a distillery located in the Highland region of Scotland that is owned by LVMH, along with its sister distillery on Islay, Ardbeg. While the latter focuses on heavily peated whisky, Glenmorangie makes unpeated whisky that is aged in a variety of different cask types, led by master distiller Dr. Bill Lumsden MBE. Lumsden is sometimes called the “Willy Wonka of whisky,” a moniker that has kind of become a lazy cliché at this point (we preferred “mad scientist” when we profiled him a few years ago). But that’s because he, and his whisky team, do have a penchant for experimentation, like the Signet expression made partially from chocolate malted barley, and the Tale of the Forest whisky that was made from barley kilned with botanicals like juniper berries, birch bark, and heather flowers.

This new 50-year-old expression, however, keeps things relatively simple. According to the brand, it was made from some of the last floor maltings at the distillery before that operation was decommissioned in 1977, and matured in a combination of bourbon hogshead casks and first-fill Oloroso sherry butts. In 1999, Lumsden selected a parcel of this whisky, mostly from the bourbon barrels with a small portion of sherry-matured liquid, and re-casked it into a single refill hogshead barrel to soften the wood influence as it matured. It spent an additional 25 years in that cask before bottling. We were able to sample this whisky, and it is a very good ultra-aged single malt. There is an abundance of fruit notes on the palate, including mango, papaya, pineapple, orange, and grape flavors, along with notes of maple, oak, pepper, leather, and just a whisper of smoke. The whisky was bottled at cask strength of 45.7 percent ABV.

Of course, as is always the case, a whisky as old and expensive as this comes in special packaging.
Glenmorangie partnered with American ceramic artist Peter Pincus to create 149 handmade display vessels that hold the bottle within, a work of art called Together in Spirit. “The release of the Glenmorangie 50 Years Old has to be one of my proudest creations,” said Lumsden in a statement. “I often wondered if the day would ever come that we’d be able to bottle a Glenmorangie with such a mighty age statement. The combination of Glenmorangie from classic bourbon barrels, with a touch of sweet yet spicy sherry cask-matured liquid presents a stunning whisky of depth and complexity, harmonized with Glenmorangie’s signature elegance.”

Each bottle of Glenmorangie 50 Years Old is priced at $36,000. If you’re interested in purchasing one, you can contact the Moët Hennessy Private Client Team, visit the distillery visitor center, or inquire via the distillery’s website.