The Glenmorangie 10 Year Old has been the cornerstone of the distillery since long before the rebrand to The Original in 2007, and earlier bottlings — from the old tall-necked bottle of the 1990s and early 2000s — are still encountered in cabinets and at auction. The recipe and the spirit have not changed in any dramatic way; what has changed is the packaging and, marginally, the cask programme behind the scenes.
Glenmorangie's stills at Tain are the tallest in Scotland, standing over five metres, and that geometry is the foundation of the distillery's house style. Only the lightest, most volatile vapours rise high enough to cross over into the lyne arm, producing a spirit of unusual delicacy and floral complexity. The 10 Year Old is matured in ex-bourbon casks, many of them from Glenmorangie's own slow-grown American oak programme in the Ozarks.
An older bottling on the nose shows vanilla, peach and fresh barley with a clean citrus pith — perhaps a little more restrained than the current Original, which has tilted very slightly sweeter. The palate is honeyed and fruity: ripe stone fruit, malted biscuit and a faint mineral edge that is one of the markers of older Glenmorangie. The finish is medium, soft and gently spiced.
It is a benchmark Highland malt, and these older bottles are a useful reminder of just how good a straightforward ten-year-old single malt can be when the spirit is well made and the wood properly chosen. The 10 was, for many years, the gateway whisky for a generation of drinkers exploring Scotch beyond the blends, and it is easy to understand why.
