Sunday, July 27, 2014
Glenmorangie Companta
Companta is the fifth and newest release in Glenmorangie's Private Edition. The whisky was aged in American oak and then finished in various wine and fortified wine casks. It's non-age stated and non-chill filtered.
Glenmorangie Companta, 46% abv ($100)
The nose is malty with orange rind, brandy notes and lots of fruit. The palate is fairly straightforward and malty with a touch of honey and a bit of acid; the acid grows toward the end getting a bit astringent. The finish has red wine notes and some sherry type notes on the nose but the astringency stays with you.
I'm not a huge fan of this malt. The nose is very nice, but it's overly astringent and the wine notes aren't integrated well into the malt. I much prefer last year's Ealanta release, which, based on repeated tastings, I've grown to like even more than I did in my initial review.
Thanks to My Annoying Opinions for the sample, and check out his somewhat more favorable review of the Glenmorangie Companta.
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9 comments:
Sonnalta PX was the highlight - now gone
A sideways question. A recent 2014 international whiskey competition gave Johnnie Walker Red a gold medal. Which makes no sense to me at all. What is your take on how this happens?
You have to be careful about those competitions. There are tons of them. Some are mostly profit making ventures, charging high admissions fees, in some, nearly everyone who enters gets an award. I trust very few of those things.
Thanks for the reply. I thought it sounded odd, for a product like Red Label to win a gold medal. A bit of cynicism can go a long way.
I think some (many) of these and similar "competitions" (whiskey, wine, dance, etc.) are actually "graded evaluations". There are scoring bands and each item is scored. Based on your score, you receive the appropriate "award". While our long-running familiarity with the Olympics may make us think of Gold as First Place, there coule easily be Gold, High Gold, Super Gold and a whole series of Platinum and Unobtanium scores above that, making "Gold" the same as getting a "C" on your report card. Or the bands could be really wide as in 7/10 or better is Gold, 5/10 or better is Silver, etc.
Agreed on this review. Much prefer Glenmo 18 to Companta.
Totally with you. Just had a brief sample of the Companta and enjoyed the deep fruit but the finish was kinda rank. Now the Ealanta, that's an excellent whiskey worth $100.
Hi Steve I thoroughly enjoyed your interview on NPR regarding the MGP whiskey information. I'm a bourbon guy myself, and it has me wondering if the same trend occurs with corn and bourbon bottlers.
Very informative stuff.
Ramesh, you may want to move this discussion to the current post about the sourcing issue. MGP, the big distillery in Indiana, makes bourbon as well as rye so it's the same issue.
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