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Glenmorangie Signet is their ultra-premium core launch. It makes use of a high quantity of delicious chocolate malt, is just distilled once a year and the cask administration to produce it is rather significant. The deeply pedantic and fulsome notes we’ve found from a tasting claims it goes something like this.
Like nearly everything at Glenmo, they start by loading around 270 toasted wine barrels with a 10+ year old spirit, however this time around it’s not the OG 10, instead, it’s the one with the chocolate malt. The whisky remains in those toasted barrels for at the very least 2 years. Throughout this time the angels of distillation take their share and it comes down to approximately 167 full barrels well worth of whisky which is then thrown into a blending tank.
After being tossed in, combined and allowed to briefly marry, the whisky is taken into a variety of wine as well as sherry barrels where the whisky sits for at the very least 6 months, but more often approximately 3 years. Lastly, those wine and also sherry barrels are unloaded and mixed together. Unofficially the whisky hovers around the 15-year mark, but no age is ever placed on the bottle since they’re going with a flavor profile as the differentiator, not a number.
There could be, and very probably is, more to the procedure, but this info came from an account of a Signet tasting completed with the brand many years ago, as did these tasting notes from our colleagues at The Whisky Jug.
GLENMORANGIE SIGNET TASTING NOTES
EYE
Dark ruby
NOSE
Cocoa, vanilla, butterscotch, dark fruit leather, malt, Dots, tropical fruit, orchard fruit, citrus peels and spice.
I love everything about this nose, it’s a lovely wave of deep sweets.
PALATE
Roasted malt, cocoa, vanilla, dark fruit leather, Dots, tropical fruit, orchard fruit, lemon zest and spice with a touch of oak and cereal sweetness
The roasted notes in this make it stand apart from everything else Glenmo does, and that’s a good thing here.
FINISH
Long and fruity fade with bits of powdered sugar, cocoa, dark fruit, and roasted malt.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Well, balanced, full body, and a soft oily feel.
Glenmorangie themselves called the new expression, “A velvet explosion, inspired by espresso.” Here’s what they had to say on their website,
“As Dr Bill, our freethinking Director of Whisky Creation, enjoyed a cup of his favourite Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, the notion of Signet first came to him. At once his mind filled with spiralling mocha flavours that he could not forget. It would take him years to bring our unprecedented whisky to life. But in its tiramisu tones and melting chocolate, you can taste his most delicious imaginings.
Signet begins with our precious chocolate malt spirit, made just once a year in our giraffe-high stills. Its espresso-like intensity fills our Distillery with aromas more familiar in an Italian coffee bar. Over the years, we temper its power with rare and treasured casks. Bourbon for creaminess. Sherry for sweetness. The spice of virgin charred oak. All balanced by some of the oldest whisky we own. The result? A velvet explosion of flavour. Bursts of bitter mocha, sizzling spice and waves of dark chocolate, mellowed by smooth butterscotch. Whisky, as you have never tasted it before.”
If chocolate is what is sure to cure your ills going into the fall this year, make sure you don’t pass this one up
H/T: The Whisky Jug.
