Glenmorangie
Tain, Inverness IV19 1PZ
Glenmorangie (pronounced in the same way as the fruit) is one of the aristocrats of malt whisky and stands out from the crowd not just for its name, but also because of the height of its 12 stills, which at 16’ 10” (5.13m) are the tallest in Scotland. The distillery was a brewery until 1843, when it was converted using pot stills from a gin distillery which was going over to the newfangled column stills.
Tall stills and long necks increase the contact the spirit and vapour have with the copper [from which the pot stills are made], turning sulphites into sulphates to create a purer, lighter-bodied spirit. Exactly what you want with gin, but not with whisky: to compensate, Glenmorangie has long been maturing and finishing its whisky in old Port, Sherry or Madeira casks.
Whisky distillers, when they want to replace a still or add a new one, generally install an exact replica of the original in order to safeguard their product’s distinctive character, and that’s what has happened here. What you see here is therefore the nearest thing on earth to an early 19th-century gin distillery.
‘What you see at Glenmorangie is the nearest thing on earth to an early 19thcentury gin distillery’
But Glenmorangie has never been backward. It was the first to switch from direct-fired stills to steam-heated: the steam engine is the star exhibit in the museum. It is also at the forefront of the whisky industry’s green revolution: all its waste is converted into biogas to supply 20% of the distillery’s energy.
After a distillery tour and tasting, you can go the whole hog and book into Glenmorangie House hotel for the night: a 17th-century house set among the ruins of an old castle, and overlooking the shores of the Moray Firth. www.glenmorangie.com – +44 (0)1862 892477 (tours must be booked)