angstrom
Glenmorangie Signet
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
January 9, 2022 (edited July 31, 2022)
3.5 stars - Very Good; 750 ml bottle
Do people actually like hot tubs, beach vacations, or sex in the shower? After much anticipation, I find the experience to be a bit of a letdown. Is the idea better than the reality? A pleasant fantasy to make it through the humdrum of normal workaday life. So many of the whisky reviewers I follow gave this a top rating. Am I missing some hedonistic gene?
This is a good and unique whisky. No question. But so are Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban and Nectar D’Or. For $45 and $65 respectively. I bought this for $205 and it is now $280 locally. I would rate all three was equally good. Supposedly this contains some very old whiskey, but this tastes 12-15 years old to me. The bottle and box look like they belong to a $500 bottle.
As a craft beer guy, many of the chocolate stout and porter notes are familiar. Which begs the question, why is malt not a bigger part of the Scotch discussion? Beer is all about the malt: pale, Pilsner, Vienna, Munich, caramel, crystal, brown, chocolate. This is the number one ingredient in Scotch and gets virtually no billing or discussion. Why? This seems like a missed opportunity to add intrigue, originality, and excitement.
205.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@Ctrexman - Sounds like you are the target market!
@skillerified - Very true. Maybe this is a special occasion whiskey to enjoy with someone dear.
I have no issues with hot tubs/beach or shower sex..........in fact I would even say i am a fan of these activities. Perhaps a bottle of Signet is in my future
In my experience, the enjoyability of hot tubs, beach vacations, and sex in the shower all depend entirely on who you're with at the time. Whiskey and craft beer, however, are just fine alone, although enhanced by good company. I don't have a point beyond that. Interesting talk about the malts. On the new Discord (shameless plug) we were talking a bit about some bourbon makers using and developing new heirloom corn varieties. The malt bill absolutely should be part of the whiskey conversation.
@cascode We will leave it to the Australian and Americans to innovate. Already seeing some very interesting use of grains and yeasts here in whiskey. Will probably follow the same extreme arc. American brewers started pretty close to tradition German and British beers. Now I can hardly recognize beer when I go out.
I agree. I thought this was a good but overpriced, overhyped whisky. The outstanding thing about it is its oddity, and I can only account for its popularity as being due to that. Interestingly, when compared to Australian whiskies this is not in the least unique as most of our local distillers use brewers malt, often highly roasted, because that is all they can source locally. The Scottish malt philosophy is based firmly on air-dried, unroasted barley. Virtually every distillery uses it and it underpins the character of Scottish single malts. It is as embedded as the use of unmalted barley in Irish pot still, so anything else raises eyebrows in Scotland. Taste the grist at any Scottish distillery and it is like chewing uncooked porridge oats, sometimes with a smoky flavour. In contrast the grist at Australian distilleries tastes like a toasted muesli bar. The Scot’s are not likely to change their approach, except in rare cases like this which become celebrated.