The biggest selling single malt in Scotland but from a small company. Glenmorangie (the Scots pronounce it to rhyme with "orangey") made an early start: It has been available as a single since the 1920s.
The distillery is at Tain is in the county of Ross-shire, on the Morangie burn and overlooking the Dornoch Firth. The site housed a meal mill from the 1550s and a brewery from the 1820s, not to mention illicit distillation which went on in the area for most of that time. Certainly an estate inventory in 1703 mentions an 'aquavitie Pott with it ffleake and stand'.
The water comes from the Tarlogie springs about a mile from the distillery, flows though lime and sandstone and is hard. Glenmorangie felt sufficiently strongly about protecting their interests in the spring that they bought up the square mile or so of land surrounding it, an area rich in heather and clover. Lightly-peated malt is used, and a house yeast. The stills are the tallest in Scotland at 5.13m/16ft 10.25in. A very narrow cut is taken.
All of Glenmorangie's output is now bottled as a single malt and the distillery
is unusual in this respect. It has been owned since 1918 by Macdonald and Muir
who are also the proprietors of Glen Moray
smws/mj
Glenmorangie have their own home page (below) which is well worth a visit.
Tain, Rossshire, IV19 1PZ
Tel: 01862-892043, Fax 01862-893862
Hear "Glenmorangie" pronounced in AU or WAV format
Visit the distillery's Web site
Search Dr. Do'g's index for the history of Glenmorangie
There just might be some news about Glenmorangie in The "Scotsman" newspaper