Glenmorangie Madeira Wood Finish - Circa 2000

Glenmorangie is the 10th largest malt whisky distillery in Scotland with a capacity of around 6.5m litres per year, but punches above its weight in sales volumes, where it is ranked 5th in the world for single malt Scotch whisky. Glenmorangie was expanded to its current 12 stills in 2009, and capacity has recently been augmented with the addition of two extra stills in 2021 for a separate, experimental distillery onsite exploring possible future innovations in distillation technique.

Glenmorangie is almost never independently bottled, although teaspooned casks occasionally appear as Westport. The official core range has changed little in recent years with the classic Glenmorangie age statement and wood finish editions joined by the popular Signet expression, which uses a proportion of chocolate malt. These are joined by a wide range of small batch and limited edition bottlings each year, but Glenmorangie 25-year-old is now discontinued and worth looking out for at auction.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.