Glenmorangie 25 Year Old Quarter Century

Glenmorangie has always been one of my preferred distilleries, and that’s for one reason; consistency.

I know, part of the fun of buying/tasting whisky is batch variations. It’s fun to watch the Aberlours and Ardbegs of the world evolve and change with every batch. And indeed, the whisky world would be a much less interesting place without those batch variations. But the whisky world also needs the opposite. For me, Glenmorange is exactly that. It’s my ‘old faithful.’ Are there batch variations? Undoubtedly. But they’re rarely, if ever, detectable to me. It’s a distillery that is always dependable and usually affordable.

You’ll note that I said ‘usually’ affordable. There are exceptions. The 25 year old release is anything but cheap. But regardless, this dram doesn’t seem to have changed in the least since I last tried it several months ago. Here’s my take on it:

Nose: I’m first hit with Glenmo’s signature vanilla/marmalade sweetness; something I’ve noticed in several of their releases. Light oak. Toffee. Wisps of white wine. Floral notes. Lovely ripe fruit. Fresh oranges, apricot, plums, and lemon cough drops. Very fresh and fruity for such an old whisky.

Palate: Smooth, with oak and white pepper. More fruit. There’s an earthiness to this dram. More marmalade. There’s also some notes in here that remind me of soda. More specifically, ginger ale and Irn-Bru.

Finish: Coffee, ginger, oak, pepper, and milk chocolate carry us through the medium-long finish.

This is great stuff. Very sweet, inviting, and alive. It has a stronger presence and more complexity than the younger Glenmo’s, yet it still remains a vibrant and fruity dram at heart. Very vibrant and fresh, in fact. It’s nice to see such an old whisky still keep its youthful liveliness. A lovely little dram. Not much to complain about here, other than the usual “this should have a higher abv.” rant.

However, as other reviewers have mentioned; while this is good, it’s overpriced. I can think of several other equally delicious bottles I could buy for the same price as one bottle of this. But hey… if you can afford it, why not?

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