Glenmorangie: A Tale of Ice Cream Single Malt Scotch Whisky Review

 

The Glenmorangie Distillery is located in Scotland’s Highland region. Unofficially founded in 1703, it began as a brewery on the Tarlogie Spring. In 1843, two former gin stills were installed, and it changed from a brewery to a distillery named, aptly, Glenmorangie. The distillery shuttered between 1931 and 1936, then resurrected until 1941, when it closed again until 1944. The distillery added two more stills in 1977, then doubled in 1990 and again in 2002, bringing the total to an even dozen. Glenmorangie owns and operates the tallest stills in Scotland, called giraffe stills; they’re 5.14 meters (almost 17 feet) high!

 

Glenmorangie’s Director of Whisky Creation is Dr. Bill Lumsden. He probably doesn’t remember it, but Mrs. Whiskeyfellow, some friends, and I had dinner with him way back in September 2014 in South Florida. Never mind how dorky I look.

 

On the Glenmorangie campus, a building called The Lighthouse exists. It is where Dr. Bill hangs out, dreaming up new concoctions, which eventually lead to something hitting store shelves. The Lighthouse is the experimental sector of the distillery. It is made of glass walls and overlooks the world outside.

 

That brings us to the limited-edition release called A Tale of Ice Cream.

 

“Ice cream is the one indulgence [Dr. Bill] cannot resist. Captivated by the elegant pleasures of his favourite ice cream parlour, he imagined a whisky piled high with decadence and lavish swirls of flavour. He and Master Blender Gillian Macdonald aged Glenmorangie in high-vanillin and Bourbon casks to bring our whisky’s richest, creamiest side to its tantalising best.” – The Glenmorangie

 

A Tale of Ice Cream is pot distilled from 100% malted barley. The distillery used both new, lightly charred oak casks and former Bourbon barrels. It carries no age statement, but Glenmorangie’s base expression is at least a decade old. It is packaged at 46% ABV (92°) and has a suggested price of $101.00. A Tale of Ice Cream is non-chill filtered and naturally colored.

 

Is it worth it? Will it remind you of ice cream? I procured a bottle from one of my favorite liquor stores in Wisconsin, and we can do the #DrinkCurious thing to answer those questions.  

 

Appearance: I poured this Scotch into my Glencairn glass to sip neat. The brassy liquid created a microthin rim and thick, widely-spaced, crawly tears.

 

Nose: If I had expected to smell only ice cream, I might have been shocked to find the aroma Scotch-like. There’s no mistaking that you’re about to imbibe in whisky. The idea of ice cream, however, is simple to grasp. I encountered butterscotch, vanilla, toasted coconut, milk chocolate, and peaches. Inhaling that vapor exposed the inside of my mouth to rich vanilla and malt.   

 

Palate: A Tale of Ice Cream’s texture was velvety and slipped across my tongue and down my throat before I realized what had happened. It took effort to hold it before swallowing. I tasted toasted coconut, dried apricots, and butterscotch on the front of my palate. The middle included malted milk, honey, and peaches. Ginger, cinnamon, and cocoa powder formed the back.

 

Finish: The finish featured ginger spice, cocoa powder, oak, peaches, honey, and apricots. The spice notes outlasted the sweet; the ginger continued until the end. I found it quite long, with a duration that lasted 2:22.  

 

Bottle, Bar, or Bust: This whisky has plenty of well-layered sweeter notes. That’s not to suggest they aren’t balanced out by spice, especially near the back and finish. I’m not the biggest fan of peaches, yet I didn’t find them overwhelming. The ginger component added some Scotchiness to the experience. The more I sipped, the longer the spiciness ran.

 

Some of the A Tale Of… whiskies are just dreamy, while others don’t do much for me. A Tale of Ice Cream is in the former category, and I’ve been plowing through my Bottle. If you enjoy Glenmorangie and see this on the shelf, spend the money. You won’t be disappointed. Cheers!

 

My Simple, Easy-to-Understand Rating System

• Bottle = Buy It
• Bar = Try It
• Bust = Leave It

 

Whiskeyfellow encourages you to enjoy your whiskey as you see fit but begs you to do so responsibly.