The Dram Initiative #009 – Glenmorangie With Jordan Cameron

Event Date:  February 26th, 2014

 

Sometimes it’s best when things don’t turn out quite the way you’d initially hoped for.  The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that.  Our February event was initially sscheduled to be an Ardbeg tasting, wherein our Ileach mate, Ruaraidh MacIntyre, was to have come out and shared some laughs, drams and down-home island insight with the collective.  Due to a bit a scheduling conflict, however, we had to defer Ruaraidh’s visit a bit.  Ok…so…what now?  We have a club to run and a tasting to do after all, right? 

Enter Glenmorangie.

Fortunately for all of us keeners in the Dram Initiative, Charton Hobbs – the company ultimately responsible for Ardbeg in our neck of the woods – is much more than a one trick pony.  There are several other whiskies in their portfolio and other great personalities more than capable of standing up in front of a roomful of whisky folk and helping to spread the gospel.  Several months back now, a lovely lady by the name of Jordan Cameron stepped in to the role of Regional Marketing Manager for Charton Hobbs (on behalf of the Moët Hennessy Portfolio).  Jordan and I shared a few emails and it was she who was instrumental in arranging to have Ruaraidh join us for Ardbeg.

When Ruaraidh’s schedule collided with reality, however, Jordan offered to come out in support of Glenmorangie instead.  We immediately switched gears and began the mad scramble to secure as many expressions of Glenmorangie as we could track down.   

Fortunately, Glenmorangie maintains a rather extensive core range, well supplemented with special edition limited runs.  Pulling together a fun and informative flight was dead easy, and made for an incredibly encompassing tasting.  It’s arguable that only Bruichladdich (and maybe Arran) maintains a broader and more amorphous range of malt whiskies than Glenmorangie. 

The line-up for this evening, as we rolled it out:

Glenmorangie 10 y.o. Original
Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or
Glenmorangie Lasanta
Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban
Glenmorangie 18 y.o. Extremely Rare
Glenmorangie Ealanta
Glenmorangie Finealta
Glenmorangie 25 y.o. Quarter Century
Glenmorangie Signet

Signet and Quarter Century were the clear-cut winners for the night, but there were some who took a shine to the peated finesse of the Finealta and the smooth sweetness of the Nectar D’Or as well.  The biggest surprise I found, personally, was how well the 10 y.o. Original held up in such a varied line-up.  It’s not oftent the case that an entry level malt still seems somewhat elegant after you work your way up the range into the higher end stuff.  Says a lot for the Glenmorangie house style, I’d say.  A couple other divisions were drawn as we debated the merits of Jim Murray’s 2013 whisky of the year ‘Ealanta’, and whether or not this particular batch of Lasanta was a sulphur-laden mistake. 

Neat drinks either way, and it certainly allowed the members an opportunity to see a very clean and malleable spirit presented in many different lights. 

Jordan did a great job pacing the evening’s consumption, sort of breaking it up to allow a few minutes of dialogue here and there, which may have been the greatest take-away from this whole event.  It’s coolt o see members interacting and starting to form little bonds.  That’s sort of the overall goal of a whisky club, isn’t it?  I think we’ll use a similar format going forward.  We’ll have Jordan to thank for helping shape the Dram Initiative when all is said and done.  😉

As at each of our previous events, we saw an influx of new members.  The club continues to grow, and we’re reaching critical mass, where we’ll have to hit a ‘wait-list’ scenario for any prospective new members, I think.  I suppose there are worse problems to have.  And on that note…I’ll take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support and interest so far.  Glad you’re having fun, ’cause we are too.  In the words of some of our punk rawk heroes: ‘without you…we’d just be us.’

Many thanks to Charton Hobbs and Moët Hennessy for their generous support in terms of time, effort and resources.  More importantly still…sincere thanks to Jordan for stepping in and spending a great evening with us over some great whisky.  Appreciate it, Jordan.

Looking forward to doing it again soon.

Slainte!

 

– Words:  Curt

– Photos:  Curt