Glenmorangie Taghta

So, I’m finally getting around to reviewing a few samples from some friends I’ve made on the Barreled app. This TRE Glenmorangie was given to me by John, via @Generously_Paul. The Taghta, which is pronounced “tuh-tah” and means “Chosen” in Gaelic, was a rare-ish in house blend that was entirely crowd sourced by the Glenmorangie Cask Membership group. They picked the flavor profile, individual casks and even played a part in the label design. So, this one is by Glenmorangie fans, for Glenmorangie fans. Cool concept. The resulting blend is amber in color, oily without producing many legs and was bottled at 46% ABV. I’m not sure about chill- filtration or added colorants, though I’d assume both are at play here. I believe there were 12,000 bottles made available exclusively to GM Cask Members, before letting the rest roll out to the regular market. The nose starts out with gentle sherry notes and light, citrus orange wedges while being rounded out with bread and vanilla after a little bit of time. The palate highlights the manzanilla sherry casks used to a T: fruity and rich with some lingering light citrus zest. The barrel notes also come into play rather aggressively and impart a bit of a harsh, cracked pepper and cinnamon vibe. Being a NAS, it suffers from the same problem as most others: harshness from youthful spirit. It doesn’t ruin anything, it just keeps all the flavors from combining and smoothing out a bit. That takes time and most NAS whiskies just ain’t got time for that. The finish is medium length, but has a thicker mouthfeel than I remember from a lot of previous Glenmorangie malts I’ve had in the past- so that’s a plus. Sadly, it’s followed by more pepper and ultimately a saltier, drier finish than I’d prefer. Overall, the concept is cool. Let the fans pick what they’d like to try and make an exclusive bottle for them. The price point is a bit high, especially for a NAS, at $130 and I’m not exactly the biggest GM fan out there, but I’m glad I got to try a pour of this one. I’ll happily give this one 3.5 stars while thanking my lucky stars (and my new friend, John on Barreled) I got to sample it. Cheers.

Very spicy and peppery. A bit harsh up front.