Scotland 2013 - Day 3 - Glenmorangie Distillery

This afternoon was quite wonderful – both because we finally got to visit one of my favorite distilleries in the world and because it actually lived up to the expectation. Glenmorangie is one of the most polished single malt whiskies in existance. The facility is no different. It's picturesque, quaint, beautiful, and clean.

I don't really think of Glenmorangie as a coastal whisky but it sits right on the shore of the North Sea, separated only by a railroad track that once transfered the whisky down to the central heart of Scotland. The buildings are stone grey with red trim on the doors, but the main entrance way carries the classic orange and black on the brand.

We mustn't forget that Glenmorangie is quite a huge operation now that it's run by LVMH. They're right there beneath Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. You'd never know if from the outside, but the equipment on the inside is gigantic. Their mashtun carries 48,000 liters of grist and water. It's enormous!

The wash from the mashtun only creates enough to fill one of twelve gigantic washbacks. Fermentation time is fifty-two hours and they run pretty much 24/7, stopping only for maintainance, Christmas, and Boxing Day.

The still house is breathtaking. The twelve stills at Glenmorangie are amazingly tall and are referred to as "the giraffes." There were only six stills as of a few years ago, but the global demand for Glenmorangie whisky required the company to double capacity. Today six wash stills and six spirit stills crank out maximum elegance. Glenmorangie decided to actually add more equipment rather than resort to super-steroid yeasts that bring the wash up to 11 or 12% abv like other distilleries we've visited. Their wash still comes out at a reasonable 8% before distilling the low wine to 21%.

You can see the many warehouses from the window of the still room. However, LVMH has warehouses all over the area. On the way to the distillery from the house we passed three or four large capacity storage units that were all full of whisky. They're spread out from Tain clear up to Brora.

Climbing up the small hill in back of the distillery reveals the railroad (still in use) and the shores of the sea.

The water for Glenmorangie comes from the nearby Tarlogie Spring. The water is quite hard and full of minerals, but clean and refreshing at the same time. It's wonderfully pure.

That's it for now. I was so happy to find that Glenmorangie is actually a world-class operation while remaining romantic and charming. It put my mind at ease.

David, Mark Harvey, and I just went for a cold run along the beach. Now we're showered off and heading down to the pub. Catch you all later.

-David Driscoll