A few weeks ago Glenmorangie released the Taghta (Scots Gaelic for ‘The Chosen One’), which is considered (according to Glenmorangie) to be “the world’s first crowd-sourced whisky”. I guess you would have to be living on the moon to not have heard about this whisky at some point as in the the past 18 months whisky enthusiasts from more than 30 countries around the world have helped craft and create Taghta through the Glenmorangie Cask Masters programme. Essentially Glenmorangie gave the whisky folk worldwide the choice of cask, name, label etc. Frankly i thought it was a bit too much, as I have received too many mails in the process, and at some point, lost interest in the whole “crowd sourcing” process, but I guess some people liked it, and participated, and it was originally a cool idea. I sure hope the whisky community chose well ( I did samples the 3 options, but that was some time ago, at maltstock last year, and I was after a few (read too many) drams, so my palate was not in form…
Only 12,000 bottles of Glenmorangie Taghta will be released globally, available exclusively to registered Cask Masters, but i guess you can get a bottle fairly easily if you’re a Glenmo fan, or a Manzanilla fan… So, after all the hoo-ha, is this a good whisky? Let’s see….
Glenmorangie Tagtha, 46% ABV, £69.99
Nose: Starts quite salty with salted brazil nuts, and a certain saline-y note, but nicely balanced with caramel and some dried fruit notes (though not very sweet), some toasted oak, and orange peel too.
Palate: full body, with initial sweet caramel and fudge, on top of oranges. the palate certainly feels sweeter than the nose, and less salty, although you can detect hints of salt, mainly in the finish. It’s not hugely vinous but you can certainly feel the wine-y tannins and notes out there. The Manzanilla is there, no doubt.
Finish: mainly on dried fruit, medium long, with sweet, caramel, fudge and fruits, and a twist of salt.
Conclusion
This is a very good malt, I quite liked the salty and the sweet notes, with the nutty nose and sweet palate, but this is not too sweet, and will appeal to those not into sherried whiskies. For me this is a notch down from the Ealanta and Finealta, yet a good whisky I can recommend if you like the flavour profile I’ve mentioned above. Can’t really go wrong with a Glenmo. They know their stuff.
Score: 86/100
Official sample provided by Glenmorangie