GLENMORANGIE Astar Highland Malt Whisky 70cl Bottle

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I bring the glass to my lips and gasp in pleasure. The flavors feel my mouth to the point that the whisky feels solid across my palate. Here is the crucial step in tasting whisky: Paradoxically, diluting the whisky doesn’t water down its flavor, instead, it opens up the spirit and releases even more nuances.

New owners, new investment – including the addition of four more stills in 2008, making 12 in total. ‘David Macdonald did what Ann Matheson did before him,’ says Russell. ‘If I’m going to improve this place or make it bigger, I’m up against all these multinationals. Someone else will have to take it on.’ The Astar’s extraordinary casks are hewn from hand-selected slow-grown oak trees from the Ozark mountains of Missouri, and meticulously crafted to exacting specifications, to ensure they impart their maximum flavour to our delicate Highland spirit.”

Vintage:

It starts with the release of the 1963 vintage in 1987, then moves on to the original Glenmorangie 18 Year Old launch in 1990. A Port Wood Finish follows in 1994, Madeira and Tain l’Hermitage in 1995, and a fully-formed Glenmorangie Wood Finish Range in 1996.

But Barnard’s call at Glenmorangie comes on the cusp of the most significant change in the distillery’s long history. Within a few years, it will be reborn. The changes of the Victorian era find echoes nearly 120 years later, when Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits arm of French luxury goods giant LVMH, buys Glenmorangie from the Macdonald family. Nose: I don’t notice any new elements, although it’s cleaned up a bit (no more dust). It may have lost some heaviness, but it’s also become more crisp and articulate. Meanwhile, I will treasure each sip of Glenmorangie Astar…as the whisky level in my bottle moves towards the halfway point, and then slowly fades into the sunset. If that’s the case, there’s no room for experimentation, trials and – let’s be honest – a bit of fun. This will give us some weeks in the summer and winter to just have a play and lay down some exciting new spirit.’

After a few sips, the fruitiness shows more, but it never takes over and that heavy oakiness stays present and constant. But I’m ok with that. I can see how it would be distracting to some classic single malt lovers, but as someone who also loves bourbon, I find the oak in the Glenmorangie Astar to be warm and inviting. Glenmorangie, like all distilleries and breweries in Britain, suffered terribly between 1920 and 1950, with Prohibition and then the Great Depression in the United States reducing whisky sales. The distillery was effectively mothballed between 1931 and 1936. The depression ended with World War II, but the war effort left fuel and barley in short supply and the distillery was again mothballed between 1941 and 1944. [6] Exports of whisky were important during the war, but enemy action disrupted and destroyed deliveries to the United States and Canada. Adler, David R. "The Sixteen Men of Tain - Allan Holdsworth". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation . Retrieved 13 July 2014.

Whiskybase B.V. (“Whiskybase”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers a whisky enthusiasts online platform that provides its members access to the most comprehensive, transparent and trusted resource of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). Glenmorangie is transformed, and the spirit character we know today begins to emerge. Two steam-heated, eight-metre high stills – the tallest in Scotland to this day; shell-and-tube condensers, rather than worm tubs.

Malt Whisky Yearbook 2023

Glenmorangie A Tale of Tokyo erzählt Geschichten aus der japanischen Metropole • CaptainScotch.de". CaptainScotch.de (in German). 2 October 2023 . Retrieved 2 October 2023.

Glenmorangie Astar owes its character to the use of first-fill American oak casks, chosen for the wood’s porous structure (eight to 12 growth rings per inch).

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In Scottish Gaelic, “Astar” literally means “journey,” and oh, how far the industry has come since 2008. As you will see from my tasting notes (below), Astar is a whisky that makes no apologies for being NAS. In fact, its wood presence is more than a little conspicuous, in a good way. According to Dr. Bill, the whisky is made from “slow growth, air seasoned, heavily toasted, lightly charred, ex-bourbon, American oak barrels.” That statement is music to my ears. After hearing such a happy pronouncement, I was quite eager to taste the whisky that came from Missouri Ozark casks, and I also wondered which sort of bourbon had formerly been aged in them. Glenmorangie is one of the most famous distilleries and biggest selling brand names in the world. It is located next to an estuary in the north eastern Highlands, close to the small town of Tain. The distillery opened in 1843 and is now owned by multi national drinks giant, Moet Hennessy. It is also one of Scotland's largest distilleries, producing 4 million litres per year, and has the tallest set of stills in Scotland. This means that only the purest and lightest spirit reaches the condenser and gets collected for maturation. Glenmorangie is one of the few distilleries that use hard water during production (this water bubbles up from a natural spring near to the distillery) and this combined with the lighter spirit gives it distinctive characteristics. The range is extensive and covers different ages and cask finishes including sherry, port and Sauternes. The distillery tour is also excellent and we can recommend it from our last visit there. The 'Astar' is a long awaited new release that is cask strength (the alcoholic strength that the whisky is in the cask) and matured in special oak casks. This oak was specially selected by Glenmorangie and comes from a forest (that they own) in the Ozark mountains in Missouri, America.