Glenmorangie 16yo The Tribute
Heritage Spirit Batch GTR Release | 43% ABV
Score: 4/10
Some promise.
TL;DR
Annoyingly disappointing and lacklustre
Unmet expectations are dastardly things
I’ve realised I’ve become whisky-numb. Not from the flavours, experiences with friends, or my own dalliances in blending. I’ve become numb from the sheer volume of whisky hitting the market and occupying the shelves.
Walking through a large chain wholesaler, that just happened to be next to a work lunch meeting, I was struck that nothing stood out among the aisles and shelves loaded to the brim with all manner of labels. I didn’t want to take anything home.
Nothing seemed to provide a visual flavour hook, nor met my value proposition standards. Sure, I could drop $500 on something; there are always those bottles gleaming behind a locked glass door, but that’s just pure silliness when I’ve not tried it before.
I’ve got no qualms about dropping some mega cheddar on an epic limited bottle, but only after I’ve tried it. Even then most bottles don’t make the cut, but of late, a memorable standout was the Bowmore Aston Martin 22 yo (batch 3?). That was a great whisky and stood toe-to-toe with epic cask strength limited Islay monsters that we tried in our local whisky club’s Fèis Ìle tasting; even duking it out with Octomore and Port Askaig 28 yo in the flavour and experience department.
But back to my little shopping detour. I’m usually a magpie, spotting the shiny and fun whiskies with a keen eye, but that day was a dull and dreary affair. Nothing shiny. Nothing exceptional. All beige. So why did I pull the trigger on this one?
It was only upon a second glance walking out the door did I notice this bottle stood apart, if only in one aspect: it was taller than its siblings. Fun fact: I’m quite colour blind. To the point I’m about 1-in-10,000 level colour confused and my optometrist recently muttered “oh my” after doing advanced colour tests; after I’m as visually as acute as an eagle - passing with flying colours, despite not knowing what those actual colours were, pun intended.
Let’s think about this for a second: 1-in-10 males, or thereabouts, are colour blind, and at least 2-in-3 whisky drinkers are males as well. That means that if you rely on colour coding your labels to easily differentiate your core range, like Glenmorangie does, you’ve reduced your shelf presence and marketing schtick by a significant margin. Sure, there are the bottom banner labels that contain more details, but those are at the bottom of a very tall bottle - and have everything crammed into there. In the case of this whisky, the 16yo number is visible, however the other details are obscured with the unnecessary barrel backgrounds. What a miss.
So the only reason I did a double take on this whisky was because of the height, and the price for the emblazoned age. A closer inspection revealed a few more fun facts that were up my alley: 43%, all ex-bourbon, and as a fun tidbit, a supposed smidge of peat. Talk about hitting all Broddy’s sweet spots for an easy weekend sipper, perfect for my upcoming yearly camping trip with friends and kids in the sunny valley heat of Carbon, Alberta.
Now that I’m back, let’s analyse further with a Glencairn rather than a Yeti mug.
Review
Glenmorangie 16yo, Heritage Spirit Batch - The Tribute, ex-bourbon barrels, bottled, 19/09/2023, 100cl Global Travel Retail exclusive release, 43% ABV
CAD$100 (£54)
Score: 4/10
Some promise.
TL;DR
Annoyingly disappointing and lacklustre
Nose
Light and delicate. Golden honey. Shaved coconut. Super subtle background earthy and rubbery peat. Retronasal brings out the tiniest splash of orange zest. Surprising nose tingle if you try to huff more out of the glass in search of more.
Palate
White pepper. Golden honey. Vanilla. Some malty undertones with barest traces of orange zest and that earthy rubbery peat.
The Dregs
Talk about a letdown. My expectations were for an amped up 10 yo given the additional aging, but no, my expectations were cut off at the knees.
This was tough to score, a seemingly common recurrence with whiskies I’ve put under the BroddyScopeTM. Going back to the reviews I’ve completed and the best comparator was the lacklustre batch of Tomatin 12, also bottled at 43%. Ya, you know what, given the experience here, this meets a Dramface 4 of: Some Promise. After all, consistency in scoring among the same reviewer is a crucial part of understanding how the score is arrived at; something that was discussed among a local whisky community I’m part of where I’m flying incognito under my real name, something that’s equally as fun as going through the whisky community as Broddy Balfour.
This whisky ultimately has some promise but just doesn’t deliver on the essentials that other more deserving whiskies do. It’s painfully plain, annoyingly simple, and stunningly disinteresting. Let’s not inflate scores for the sake of curving reviews to an average 5/10 or median score of 6.x that is across all reviews. Let’s call things as it is: if it’s dung, then let’s not say it smells of anything other than dung.
Oh, and one other segue before I sign off: it is often referenced that vintage bottlings actually contained much older stocks than their ages implied, ultimately “amping” them up. Well in this example, we have Exhibit A of the Glenmorangie 16, and Exhibit B, a Knockando 12 yo from 2003, also a 43% - to ensure we aren’t jumping ABV weight classes here. So presumably, the modern Glenmo 16 and the vintage Knockando 12 could conceivably be of similar matured ages and could be comparable. Wrong. Pouring some Knockando side-by-side, and the Glenmo falls in the first round from a knockout punch of flavour and experience.
I’m going to sign-off here then with a message for Glenmorangie: they could do better, c’mon. It’s a 16 year old single malt whisky aged in ex-bourbon barrels! This should be delicious; instead it’s leaving me wanting, especially after my expectations were buoyed by the label. Another example of a phoned-in, half-assed vanilla expression for Global Travel Retail; beware folks. They would’ve been better off blending this whisky away rather than releasing it, even for airports.
Oh, and those labels; a little attention please for those of us who might need to rely on height differences over colour contrasts.
Score: 4/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB
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