Provenance: Highlands (Scotland)
Typology: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Gradation: 43%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon, ex-Pedro Ximénez and virgin
Chillfiltered: Yes
Additional coloring: No
Owner: Moet Hennessy
Average price: € 90.00
Official website: www.glenmorangie.com
Vote: 88/100
In Tain, Ross-shire, about sixty kilometres from Inverness, rest the remains of St Duthac, whose preaching, in the Middle Ages, prompted many worshippers to make perilous journeys to the North of Scotland to hear him. It’s said that a few centuries later, King James IV used to make an annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary of St. Duthac, following a route through the Highlands known as “The King’s Route”.
This pilgrimage is remembered by The Duthac whisky, which together with The Tayne, the Tarlogan and The Cadboll, composes the Glenmorangie “Legends” series, conceived by the equally legendary Director of Whisky Creation and Distilling Bill Lumsden, and dedicated to memorable events and characters of the region around the distillery.
Proposed at 43% ABV in liter bottles and initially released, like the whole “Legends” series, for the Travel Retail market (but now available, at least in part, also in large distribution), The Duthac is a NAS, a whisky without a declaration of ageing, which spent an unspecified number of years in ex-Bourbon casks to be then finished, even in this case we don’t know for how long, in a combination of virgin barrels and barrels that had previously hosted the renowned Sherry Pedro Ximénez.
Tasting notes
Color is a natural amber.
On the nose, a caramel scent immediately arrives, gluttonous prelude to a bite of milk chocolate, a teaspoon of hazelnut cream and a layer of sponge cake bathed with orange liqueur. Sometimes a note of white chocolate appears. As with The Tayne, the only sin seems a certain escape from the olfactory sensations. As the minutes go by, the hint of white chocolate takes up more and more space.
On the palate, the aromas of white chocolate and sponge cake bathed in orange liqueur alternate pleasantly in a light body, accompanied by a spicy note that we could trace back to the use of virgin barrels.
The average ending is equally declined in sweet tones, but more muted. In the empty glass rests an original impression of mocaccino.
All on the thread of a non-cloying sweetness, a seductive single malt on the nose, elegant on the palate and soft in the finish.
Another Glenmorangie that conquers from the first sip.
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The Scotch Noob