Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban

So my wife and I were in our whisky and chocolate pairing at the local whisky bar, Helvetica. We'd just tried a pairing of Dalwhinnie 15 yr old and honeycomb, which had been absolutely brilliant and were eagerly looking forward to the next tasting.

Now this tasting was of Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban and mint chocolate.

I was really looking forward to this combination as I've had several different Glenmorangies, specifically the Astar and Nectar D'or, before and thought they were absolutely brilliant whiskies.

Never having tried the Quinta Ruban I was quite eager to taste it and see how it compared.

So our lovely hostess brings out the tasting tray that has the remaining whiskies and the chocolates to be tasted with them.

Yum!!

So my wife and I take our tasting glasses with the Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban's and decide to try the new whisky!

This is no Astar or Nectar D'or, that's immediately clear!

The smells are overwhelming of port, with some floral notes mixed in with other fruits. The closest I can come with the fruits are pears and grapes mixed with honey and vanilla, but I'm left feeling that I'm missing something.

It's a complex nose, but somehow disappointing. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just because of the setting in the bar instead of at home. Like I said I feel like I'm missing something here in the nose and I'm not sure yet, so note to self come back to this whisky at another time and place!

I then decide that it's time that I have whisky in my mouth!

It's SIPPIN TIME!

So just like with the first whisky and chocolate my plan is to try the whisky with as clean a palate as I can manage then try it again with the chocolate.

So I sip from my glass and immediately taste some cocoa notes along with pears, cocoa, hints of mint, raisins, lots of spices, some more fruits that I can't identify, but partway through the tasting the whisky does a 180 and turns almost bitter with wine and tannins.

The finish is of medium length with oak, vanilla, and honey coming down with the spices, but a bit of that wine flavor coming through and distracting from what could have been a lovely finish.

Now it's time for the whisky and chocolate!

So I take a sip of the whisky and take a bite out of the chocolate mint and you can immediately see what the thought of this pairing was, the mint and cocoa in the whisky combining with the mint and chocolate along with maybe the honey.

Now this is a good combination of chocolate and whisky, but for some reason doesn't wow like the Dalwhinnie and the honeycomb did. That pairing just burst into your mouth and you were left in awe.

This pairing is good, but not great.

The whisky score is posted down below and the chocolate and whisky combo score sits at a comfortable 75.

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