Glenmorangie Lasanta Tasting Notes and Review

The Story

Glenmorangie is one of the distilleries that is leading the way in experimenting with different cask finishes on their mainstay whisky.  You can think of these whiskies as simply their ten year aged for an extra two years in a different type of cask.  Check out my review of the Glenmorangie 10 Year HERE.

I love cask finishes.  Scotch is great and beautiful and perfect as it is, but it's always nice to experiment with interesting variations.

As much as Glenmorangie has been experimenting with different casks, this one isn't quite as wild as many of the others.  In fact, wait for it, this dram is finished in sherry casks.

No.  Not so novel.  I know.

But even with a classic style, there is always the opportunity to sink or swim.

On to the whisky....



Tasting Notes

Nose: Oaky, dried figs.  Resiny sherry notes come through but are not overpowering; it's clear already this is sherry finished as opposed to sherry matured.

Palate: Caramel mingles with gentle sherry notes of apricot and figs.  Light woody resin.  The balance is fair, but there is little depth.

Finish: The sherry resin comes through in the finish and dominates just behind a heavy alcohol burn. Medium oaky notes find their way in at the end.  Finish is of medium length.


Review

This is a solid scotch, and if you like sherry, it's probably worth trying as a change of pace.  It has a less intense sherry character than stalwarts such as Aberlour's A'bunadh (which I loved), the Macallan 12 (which I like a lot), or the GlenDronach 12 (which I mostly like).

I found the overall character of the scotch to lack much depth.  There are solid Glenmorangie tones and some pleasant sherry tones, but it lacked the complexity and general "oomph" that I was looking for.

In short, it was good, but it was not great.  At the price point it seems to find itself at these days, I can't say I plan to buy another bottle.

If you love sherry or Glenmorangie, give it a shot.  If not, I'd save the money for a different bottle.





Scotch Dreams Score: 80

*Scotch Dreams Value Adjustment: -2

*The Scotch Dreams Value Adjustment attempts to account for the price/quality balance in some of the world's cheaper or overpriced drams.  Cheap scotch that is good enough to earn a decent rating will typically see a positive adjustment, while overpriced scotch that is mediocre will see a negative adjustment.  Adjustments are on a scale of -5 to +5 and may be added directly to the Scotch Dreams Score - which addresses ONLY the dram's quality - to achieve a price weighted scoring.  Check the Scotch Dreams Scoring System page if you're interested in learning more.