Whisky Connosr
Menu
Buy Whisky Online

Glenmorangie 1993 Ealanta 19 Year Old Virgin Oak Casks

Apple-Wood

0 1291

@VictorReview by @Victor

20th Nov 2013

0

Glenmorangie 1993 Ealanta 19 Year Old Virgin Oak Casks
  • Nose
    24
  • Taste
    22
  • Finish
    22
  • Balance
    23
  • Overall
    91

Show rating data charts

Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Glenmorangie Ealanta is the fourth Private Edition Glenmorangie malt, having followed Sonnalta PX, Finealta, and Artein. Release began February 2013. Jim Murray recently named Ealanta the World Whisky of the Year in his 2014 Whisky Bible. Glenmorangie Ealanta was aged 19 years in new toasted, but not charred, oak barrels. The reviewed bottle is freshly opened. I will add comments, etc., as needed if the bottle changes appreciably over time

Nose: Apple, fresh-cut, sitting in a pool of old Cognac. The barley-malt comes across as apple in Ealanta. Minus the orange and pear, this smells and tastes very similar to the Glenmorangie base malt from Glenmorangie Original, from which it is derived. In addition to the apple, you smell many fine 19 years brewing nuanced shades of the toasted new oak. This is all about apple and toasted new oak. The nose is very smooth with a very mellow balance of both flavours and sweet and dry

Taste: the apple and nuanced wood come out strongly on the palate with much increased sweetness. There is vanilla and Brazil nuts present, in the wood. Sawdust. This is very tasty, if you like these particular flavours

Finish: Nice Jim Murray-style balanced finish. Long and sweet

Balance: really, this Glenmorangie Ealanta might just as well be a medium-sweet apple cordial, or a very funky and unusually sweet Calavados. All of the flavours are nice enough, and very mellow, but are they delicious? To me, the barley is actually rather boring here, and most of the interest is in the wood. Toasted new oak gives a lot of nuance. They had to use toasted oak because 19 years of aging in new CHARRED oak would have resulted in a whisky in which you would not be able to taste any barley. But barley is not the best grain to use even with toasted oak, and especially this barley isn't. I can only get so excited by this apple-flavoured barley-malt. Old Potrero 18th Century Style (rye) Whiskey is just so much more interesting using toasted new oak. Don't get me wrong, this is a very nice and pleasant malt whisky. I just don't see this style of flavour profile ever becoming very popular. It is beautifully mellow and balanced. It is just not that DELICIOUS

Find where to buy Glenmorangie whisky

Nose:

Body:

Palate:

Related Glenmorangie reviews

Read more Glenmorangie 1993 Ealanta 19 Year Old Virgin Oak Casks reviews

12 comments

R
Rigmorole commented

Bravo, Victor for opening this now famous bottle and sharing your thoughts.Much appreciated. And your score makes me feel better about my recent acquisition. Vanilla and Brazil nuts sounds nice.

My grandmother, back in the day, got very upset with me for correcting her about Brazil nuts. She used a colloquial expression for the nut, which I can't imagine hearing on this site. I felt bad. She nearly cried and said, "But that's the name of the nut, how can it be wrong to say it!" She was a very sweet lady without a mean bone in her body. It was a lesson to me about American culture.

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@rigmorole, I know that infamous alternative name for Brazil nut. And current Brazilians use very similarly translated names for their contemporary peanut brittle types of snacks.

Great place, though, Brasil. Dramlette and I have been a number of times. That dog-eat-dog battle for hegemony over the planet just seems to disappear once you get down there, south of the equator. The sky looks different too...and, best of all, the water rotates the opposite way down the drain...

11 years ago 0

@sailorman
sailorman commented

Victor&Rigmarole, I had to chime in when you mentioned the Brazil nuts. Victor, great review as always! Feel free to visit me in Northeast Brazil! Cheers

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@sailorman, I am sure that Dramlette and I would love to visit you in Brasil! Fortaleza has been on my list for awhile. Ate ja, o sailorman!

11 years ago 0

@Nock
Nock commented

@Victor - thanks for the great (and very honest) review. So is it fair to say you were most taken with the nose? Or was it the balance? What pushed this over the 90 point mark for you?

Ya, this sounds like another "Murray" style bottle I would not enjoy. I really think his love of Ballentine's 17yo and Glenmorangie has been very consistent. He really seems to love balance above and beyond all . . .

This will not be a favorite of the Big Flavor Club

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Nock, yes, I very much think that this is a "Murray-style" bottle in which you will find limited pleasure. I went out of my way to try to be fair in the grading here, and marked on "critics' criteria" more than on how much I personally enjoyed it or would be drawn to drink it repeatedly. For my personal taste it would be more like an 86 pt whisky, good, but not something which would draw me to want to drink it frequently. VERY VERY smooth, elegant, and balanced it is,...just not delicious.

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

One more thing, about which I didn't comment specifically in the review: the mouthfeel of Glenmorangie Ealanta is EXTRAORDINARY. Beautiful, silky smooth, rich...it is perhaps the thing which I love most about this whisky.

11 years ago 0

@MaltActivist
MaltActivist commented

@Victor Thanks for the brilliant review. I know exactly what you mean when you say this is a Murray style malt and how he loves his balance above all (which is not necessarily a bad thing, though, the term balance has come of ill-repute as of late).

And I think the problem is that people are way too obsessed with titles. Unless you're a Champion of something you're not really worth the trouble. And if a champion is not agreeable then all hell breaks loose. People want champions but they want to crown them themselves.

I think the important thing to look at is whether this single malt is worth your time and money. Seems from your review that it certainly is.

Is it a world champion? Who cares....

11 years ago 0

@vanPelt
vanPelt commented

Congratulations on taking the plunge! I was about to prod you a bit more, but no need to now. This is the first Ealanta review I've seen emphasizing "apple". I will have to take back my "blue to a blind man" comment to you! But vanilla and nuts, for sure, and I couldn't agree with you more about the levity of flavor and--yes-- mouthfeel!

Thanks for the Old Potrero lead. I wondered what you would compare the Ealanta to; and I guess we got the answer... Calvados ;-)

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

This bottle has morphed a lot. Four weeks of having the bottle open and ungassed I am impressed that the flavours of my bottle of Glenmorangie Ealanta are getting more pointed and prickly. I like it. The creaminess, sweetness, and apple-emphasis are less and there is more spiciness and a bit more wood-bitterness. The mouthfeel is still outstanding. If anything I like this Ealanta better now with a little air exposure. I would keep the score about the same.

Ealanta is a very interesting whisky which features some very thought-provoking dimension.

11 years ago 0

L
Lifewaterforce commented

Thanks for giving us a review of this Victor! Have had mine in my cabinet for a few months now. Looking forward to it!

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

At 8 weeks of the bottle opened and ungassed this bottle of Glenmorangie Ealanta has become more and more spicy and also sweeter. I have decanted it at this point because I don't want it to shift farther. I liked the flavours best probably at 4 weeks bottle opened. They are still very good now, though.

11 years ago 0