Glenmorangie Milsean

Stop number 8 on the SDT is Glenmorangie. I have had all 4 of their core range offerings; the Original 10 YO, Lasanta, Nectar D'Or, and one of my favorites, the Quinta Ruban. I enjoyed all four of these, let's see if the Milsean (pronounced mill-shun, which is Gaelic for "sweet things") can hold its own. This Highland single malt is a NAS, but I suspect it is in the 10-12 year old range. It is finished for two and a half years in Portuguese red wine barriques, not to be confused with Port wine. What's the difference? Glad you asked. Both are made using the same type of grapes, but port wine is a fortified wine, meaning it has brandy added to it to raise the ABV. This scotch comes in at 46% ABV, is non chill filtered and natural color of honey gold. The nose is rather light and subdued with a surprising alcohol presence on the first sniff. Nothing too bad, but more than expected for a Glenmorangie. Faint cotton candy and sugary toffee are the first real notes I detected. Flat cola comes in next. There is a definite bourbon type presence, but more like an empty glass after finishing a cheap bourbon. Some light stone fruits in there as well like apricots and nectarines. Really a weak nose and not too exciting. The palate could not be any different than the nose. Incredible how intense and robust it is after struggling with the scents. Spicy at first, a spice that really intensifies in the first few seconds on the tongue. After swallowing the spice quickly changes to a fruity sweetness. Wonderful fruit juices like mango, plums and sugary grapefruit. Some light alcohol harshness on the back end but nothing to really detract from the experience. I don't want these tastes to end! Sadly they do end, and somewhat abruptly. The finish is fairly short. Dry but sweet and a bit spicy. The mouthfeel is lightly oily and a little creamy and quite mouthwatering. This is much like the Nectar D'Or in that the palate is much more intense and interesting than the nose, however the nose on this Milsean is weaker. Tough to score this one. 3 for the nose, nice but weak. 2.75 for the finish, too short but otherwise good. 4.25 for the palate, intense and unexpectedly fruity. 3.5 overall. Although if I were to factor in the price ($100 locally) I would drop it down to 3.25. A big thanks to Pranay for this and the other two samples he provided for round one of the Scotch Distillery Tour. Cheers

Info: Ce milsean est l'une des 5000 bouteilles de la série d'édition limitée "Private edition" de Glenmorangie. "Milsean" signifie douceur en gaélique et se prononce "meel-shawn". Cette édition est une référence aux boutiques de confiseries d'antan. Le fût de maturation est un fût de bourbon et le fût d'affinage est un fût de vin rouge de la région de Douro au Portugal qui a été préalablement "grillé". Un 46% habituel pour la distillerie. La couleur est d'un naturel doré. On ne connait pas l'âge de maturation exacte mais on sait que l'affinage est d'une durée de 2 ans et demi. Nez: Jujube aux fruits. Des parfums tropicaux. Miel, melon, citron, banane et ananas. Mais aussi un côté beurre. Définitivement quelque chose qui rappel un bonbon crémeux Bouche: ça goute le gâteau aux bananes nappé de beurre salé sous une touche d'amertume tel un zeste de citron. Vraiment particulier! Ce n'est pas commun comme champs aromatique! Belle texture! Belle pointe en alcool habituelle à la distillerie! L'intensité aromatique est parfaite et bien équilibré. En bouche ça se concentre sur le beurre et les fruits tropicaux. Une belle continuité de l'arôme tout au long et une chaleur est dégagé loin dans l'oesophage. finale: Encore cette impression de jujube au fruits. Les petits oursons de toute sorte de couleur un peu huileux et fraichement faites. Moyennement longue (habituel aussi à cette distillerie.) Overall: J'aime beaucoup cette édition! J'en avais entendu du bien et les notes que j'avais lue m'intriguait. Du pop-corn? Ce n'est pas ma perception mais je comprends que le côté "beurre" que je perçois peut être interprété de la sorte. Une fois que le goût se dissipe en bouche, on a rapidement envi d'en reprendre. On ne veut pas que ça arrête. C'est "bon dans yeule" comme il dirait. Peut-être pas pour les amateurs de sensation forte et de grosse tourbe ou de sherry-bomb. Ça reste un scotch aux arômes douces de fruit tropicaux. Vous n'aurez pas votre coup de poing au visage (peut-être?) désiré. Mais, vous allez avoir une avalanche d'arômes fruités de toutes sortes. Ce genre de bouteille ne conserve souvent pas leurs arômes douces bien longtemps. Une fois ouverte, ne rangé pas la bouteille trop loin. Bref, j'en ai assez dit. Un scotch complexe, original, pas trop cher, avec une belle intensité sur ses 46%. Pour moi c'est un 92%.

After a cold night at work and heading into my only weekend off for the entire month of December, it's time to open something new. I've got a few more smoked scotch open right now so I need to balance the bar a bit. Time for something non-Macallan, and sweet. The Glenmorangie Milsean Private Edition. It comes in at a robust 92 proof and if I recall correctly I paid just over $100 online for this bottle back in the spring of 2016. It's a vibrant, golden yellow and leaves very oily, long legs in the tasting glass. The nose seems very familiar- lots of candied corn, cotton candy and vanilla and it's so sweet there's no oak barrel left to detect. It smells like an above average, American bourbon. Interesting. The first sip is more candy corn and milky powdered sugar that hangs onto the tongue for what seems like an eternity. I think I felt a new cavity forming. This is way too sweet. The finish does bring a bit of a welcoming burn of toasted oak to wash all the candy away, but even that seems a little muted. Just a quick flash of heat and oak and then it winds out with more sugary residue clinging to the tongue. It's so ridiculous that it seems like artificial sweetener- and not at all in a good way. I added a bit of water (more than just a drop) to see if I can break the sweetness up and reveal something else- it did nothing to the nose, but did allow the oak to come through a bit more on the tongue and finish. Thankfully. Final thoughts are that maybe this is their impression of an American bourbon, but based on the high price point and the fake tasting candied profile, it is a fail. There are $30 bourbons in this country that would beat this whisky on the playground and steal it's lunch money. Sadly, this is another dud IMO from 'Morangie. I'm at the point with this place that I only want small doses of Quintan Ruban and La Santa going forward. I've spent a decent amount of money on this distillery and I've had too many duds to recommend them and no desire to try their new offerings. Live and learn, I guess. 2.75 stars. Cheers, friends.

Milsean is one of those bottles I kept passing up until I thought they were gone and then stumbled upon on and I just had to give it a go. I'll save you any suspense, it's pretty tasty and I'm glad to have it, but how does it score? I seriously wish I knew more about these but i'm assuming 6-14 year old juice and oddly I think more in the 10-14 range and interesting wine casks. nose - I get an oddly lightly soured and yet candy like note, perhaps a blue or purple sweat tart meets a sour sucker meets charred oak? Some barely and oak notes as well. I don't recall this sour note from earlier tastings but what remains is a sweet and very inviting candy experience, and thus the candy stripe box design. The more I nose the more I start to get some bourbon notes, perhaps some vanilla and caramel. Wow just went back to it after a few minutes and I can't even describe it, it's like a kid's sticky mess of a box of candy where they opened a bunch, just hit me with candy. Lemon drops and sour patch, and just everything. Taste - well it's a tart and sweet candy mix for sure. Everything from your cherry suckers to your perhaps lightly chocolatey notes. Then a lovely transition to a slightly tart and wood sour finish, showcasing the charred oak and a mix of almost a powdered sugar and light milk chocolate powder combination. This is just a delightfully easy drinking sweet and candied whisky. It's not super old or complex. It's not great by any means. But it's just an easy and super enjoyable turn your head off and have a scotch kinda pour. I'm thinking 2.0, but I'll bump it to 2.25 for how inviting it is. The unique notes here might justify a few more points but at the same time, the nose has a hint of wow but more in "wow what is that" and the taste is mostly enjoyable and inviting, not wow. Anyway it's a bit expensive at 100 bucks but I'd not be opposed to a second bottle.

A 2016 release from Glenmorangie, this "Milsean" is part of the Private collection; a whisky i have seen a lot and i passed from buying it, and now that i have had a sample, i am glad i did. Milsean is pronounced "Meel-Shawn" and is gaelic for "sweet things". It is actually marketed as very sweet and spicy. Bottled at 46%abv, burnished gold color, matured in bourbon casks and finished in red wine cask from Portugal. On the nose, it is cold, fresh and a little harsh. Starts with a little spiciness on the nose; fresh fruitiness like Pineapple. Feels cold on the nose, vanilla powder and white wine. Chocolate fudge. Acetone. It is not super easy to nose. After a couple of minutes it opens into gooseberries. Green grapes is a very accurate note of this whisky. After a first sip, it gave me hard mint candy and more cold aromas. Jellybeans. On the palate, it is a little simple and mostly spicy. Chocolate fudge and Chilli spice. A second sip released this earthy note like the one you can find in red wines. Dusty, there are some red fruits also present. Aftertaste is dry and short. Powdery finish, it is so earthy it almost feels peaty. Ginger. Overall, this one didn't do much for me. Frankly, it felt a little young due to the spiciness that were not compensated by other sweeter notes, and it didn't actually felt very sweet at all. If your whisky expression is called "sweet things" and it is not sweet, people are going to feel dissapointed because you are literally telling them they are going to feel something that is not real. My score for this whisky is a very fair 76 over 100.

Watching the NY Mets fall apart in extra innings against the Washington Nationals (April 21st : Was under the weather since and catching up on reviews). No worries, I will offset the slow burn with a Milsean; a scotch sourced to me by Pranay. A floral, slightly earthy nose greets you. Rubbing alcohol is appearant (maybe it's my feeling under the weather), cola and confectionary sugar. The aromas are rather dynamic and no one theme adheres. With a draw of the liquid, the palate is initially presented with a bitterness that is dry and spicy: sourced to the flavors of grapefruit, black cherry and oak. Nothing like the nose profile. Finally, grapefruit bitterness dominates and remains with some oak drying tannins. A touch of water mellows the spicy side (tweaking down the ABV) which accentuates, on the palate, the buried sweet side. Recommended with a splash. A bitter and spicy profile is the foundation to this whisky. Somewhat static or non-flashy and shallow, like the 2017 NY Mets. However, it does start to become less "restricted" in good time. The Glenmorangie range has never been keen to my taste. For me, I have found them average with glimpses, but nothing memorable. [84/100][Tasted: 4/21/17]