About Glenmorangie Ealanta 19 Year Old Single Malt Scotch
Following distillation, Glenmorangie Ealanta Single Malt Whisky was aged for 19 years in heavily toasted virgin oak casks. "Toasting just gives an altogether more subtle taste experience," says Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie's Master of Whisky creation. Lumsden, who holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (he wrote his dissertation on yeast physiology) and is the only person in the world to have been honored with
Whisky Advocate's "Industry Leader of the Year" award three times, is one of the most respected figures in the Scotch whisky industry. "Charred oak gives a large amount of flavor really quickly and while it may work beautifully for the oily, gutsy spirits distilled in Kentucky and Tennessee, it's not ideally suited for our rather refined and delicate Scottish spirit." As a result, Lumsden aged Ealanta exclusively in casks that were coopered from slow growth oak after being air-seasoned for just one year, as opposed to the traditional 18 to 24 months.
After the whisky was poured into the heavily-toasted casks, it was allowed to mature in Warehouse 3, one of Glenmorangie's dunnage-style warehouses, which is equipped with stone walls and damp floors. "Rather than driving the extractives out of the wood, which you would get in a typical Kentucky heated warehouse, this allows the flavors in the wood to be coaxed out very gently, and it develops a lot of complexity," says Lumsden.
Following its 19-year beauty rest, Glenmorangie Ealanta Single Malt Whisky was non-chill filtered and bottled in its natural color at 92 proof.
Glenmorangie Ealanta was named the 2014 World Whisky of the Year by Jim Murray's
Whisky Bible, with a score of 97.5 points — the highest score ever. Only a select number of bottles were made for the Private Edition collection.
Pick one up today!
About Glenmorangie
In 1738, a brewery was built upon Morangie Farm in the Highlands region of Scotland. A century later, William Matheson acquired the farm and equipped the Morangie brewery with two stills that he purchased second-hand, and renamed the brewery-converted-distillery Glenmorangie.
Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch Whisky is made using malted barley, which is mashed and fermented with water sourced from the Tarlogie Spring. The water produced from the spring, which spends nearly a century underground being filtered through layers of limestone before it is extracted, is unusually rich in minerals. In the 1980s, when development in the area threatened the spring's water quality, Glenmorangie purchased 600 acres of land around and including the spring in order to ensure consistent water quality and adequate supply.
After the barley has been fermented, the wash is twice distilled through Glenmorangie's copper-pot stills by a team of 16 distillers known as the Sixteen Men of Tain. Glenmorangie's stills are equipped with relatively small boiler pots, which increases the exposure of the whisky to the copper, resulting in a more pure flavor. In addition, the stills are nearly seventeen feet tall — the tallest of any distillery in Scotland — and as a result, produce a lighter, more refined whisky.
About Scotch
Scotch is the most popular whisky in the world and is considered the king of them all! There are five whisky regions in Scotland (six if you count the not officially recognized Islands), and each of them produces spirits with unique properties and distinct tasting notes. (The type of grain used determents the type of the scotch.)
Malt whisky is made of malted barley, and grain whisky uses other grains like corn or wheat. Most of the time, a whisky is blended from different distilleries hence the name blended scotch, but if a malt whisky is produced in a single distillery, we get something extraordinary called a single malt.
Check out our impressive selection of scotch whiskies, find your new favorite in the Top 10 scotch whiskies, or explore our treasury of rare & hard to find scotch whiskies.
