Glenmorangie 18 Year "Extremely Rare"

GLENMORANGIE 18 YEAR

Glenmorangie make some of the most elegant, feminine whiskies out there, from their paradigmatic Extra Matured series to experimental throwbacks like Finealta.  The 18 Year, called Extremely Rare, is a decadent, rich single malt that shows great finesse and balance, managing to be both buxom and lithe.  Aged fifteen years in bourbon barrels, it spends its final three in Sherry butts; it’s something like the apotheosis of the twelve-year-old Lasanta,  showing a hint of its struck-match note at the finish.  After only a few hours of air, this older iteration begins fairly to glow with a Speyside-like sweetness and roasted-nut charm, possessed of breathtaking breadth of complexity and flavor, and a finish that goes on for minutes.

nose: Has that wonderful old-book sweetness, glossy leaves with ink you can feel under your fingertips like braille; spicy orange confit and clove; cinnamon toast and vanilla orchid; spearmint and honey; a certain limeflower roundness like old Riesling.  Finely-wrought, accessible, and mightily sophisticated.

palate: An initial salvo of vanilla-almond meringue swirls and expands and then seems to plunge over a cliff, or maybe burst like a dam.  It's an eye-rollingly pleasurable sensation, something like the palate being pulled into a vast, open organoleptic space where wave after wave of supple, spine-tingling flavors bear it along and safely to rest.  It manages somehow to be utterly nostalgic and yet unexpected, reassuring and at the same time thrilling.   There are hops and honeycomb and lime and slate and grass and saltwater taffy and sweet minty candy, with a midpalate that tastes eerily of Kentucky chess pie: flavors that burst onto the palate like cream into a cup of tea, to swirl and integrate into a wondrous, swooningly delicious whole, that shimmer and echo and fade away with the tiny, tiniest wee hint of smoke (here the match-head echo of Lasanta).  So, so long and pretty.

This is whisky to write poetry on, and to, if you’ll forgive the grammar.  Wistful and compelling and leaning mightily in the direction of the shattering vinous elegance of a Macallan 18.  Glenmorangie make a damn fine whisky in general, so, as you might expect, this Extremely Rare 18 Year is absofuckinlutely worth the benjamin, if you’ve got it to drop.

Laphroaig 18 Year

LAPHROAIG 18 YEAR

There’s a real expression of terroir in Laphroaig’s fantastic 18-year iteration.  It’s said that Laphy get much of their distinctive maritime tang from the relatively higher amounts of moss in the peat they use, and, after all, what purer expression of terroir could you imagine than malting your barley over smouldering terroir?  Baby coal rears its naughty head in petroleate aromas in Laphroaig’s quarter cask offerings, but here the peat is coastal and airy; the wonderful balance and elegant texture of the 10-year are ratcheted up several notches, which, perhaps counter-intuitively, results in a more subtle, feminine whisky.

nose:  Alive with mossy stones-after-rain, pineapples and slate.  There’s a gentle, warm tropicality here, like banana pudding and sweet roasted walnuts, overarched by gorgeous, feminine smoke.   A note of fleshy saddle leather adds a compelling, earthy aspect to the outro. 

palate:  Beautiful, plush coils of smoke; candied lemons and country ham, salty and bright; a flirtatious core of berries- kirsch and something darker, more sylvan; incense ash and chai spices, particularly cardamom and black pepper, towards the end.  The finish is a riotous bloom of sweet citrus and clean seawater; tastes like love and piney campfire.    All this is dressed up in an unbelievably supple, sensuous mouthfeel that gets the blood racing with its length and concupiscent, unctuous texture.   It rings in the mouth for minutes afterwards, glorying in this marvelous texture and Islay provenance.