The Glenmorangie Distillery: 10 Facts
- Emma Gibbs
- Mar 21, 2024
- 2 min read
The Glenmorangie Distillery. 🥃 In Gaelic meaning ‘valley of tranquillity’, this distillery is known for producing light refined whisky with a strong Highland character. Here are 10 facts.
Region: The Highlands
Founded: By William Matheson in 1843
Current owner: LVMH
Range: ⩥
Glenmorangie has 21 whiskies in its range, including 5 in the core range which are 10 YO, 12 YO, 14 YO, 16 YO and X, a whisky made for mixing.
Stills 🥃
The distillery boasts the tallest stills in Scotland, a design that ensures only the lightest and purest vapours rise to the top, resulting in a smooth and delicate spirit. All the stills are modelled after a pair of second-hand gin stills bought during a trip to London by William Matheson after he was awarded his licence in 1843.
Water 💧
In contrast to most other distilleries Glenmorangie use a HARD, mineral-rich water to make its whisky. The water is drawn from the nearby Tarlogie Springs, located in the wooded hills above the distillery.
Wood Policy 🌳
Glenmorangie has its own forest in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri, U.S.A. There, they make staves from tight-grained oak, which are then left to season naturally in the open air for a minimum of 2 years.
The staves are then sent to the Brown-Forman cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky and coopered into 200-litre barrels. From there the barrels are leased to Jack Daniels to fill with bourbon for 4 years before finally being sent onwards to Scotland. Every barrel is only used twice.
The Lighthouse 🔎
The Glenmorangie Distillery features a 20m-high glass building called The Lighthouse which is dedicated entirely to innovation and experimentation. With two purpose-built stills, the team there work on experiments with raw ingredients and investigate changes in key processes such as mashing, fermentation and distillation.
Female Master Blender 👩🏼
Gillian Macdonald is the master blender at Glenmorangie and at LVMH’s sister distillery, Ardbeg. She’s responsible for analytics and whisky creation and her responsibilities include nosing new make spirit to check for quality, working in the sensory lab and creating new whisky concepts.
The Men of Tain 👴🏻🧔🏽♂️🧔🏻
For generations, Glenmorangie was distilled by a group of 16 local men entrusted with the secrets of the craft, known at the Men of Tain, in reference to the distillery’s location in Tain, Ross-shire.
Today the distillery has a team of 24 distillers under the guidance of Distillery Manager Edward Thom and Head of Distilling Dr. Bill Lumsden.
Fun Fact: Glenmorangie’s brand mascot is a giraffe, a nod to its stills which are the same height as the average adult giraffe – 5.1m. 🦒
Have you ever tried Glenmorangie? Have you been to visit the distillery? Let me know in the comments.
Comments