Inspired by favourite memories of baking, Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake celebrates all that is good about cake. The limited edition whisky has notes of honey, white chocolate and fruit, forming the inspiration for award-winning pastry chef Dominique Ansel.
Dreaming of encapsulating cake’s magic in a single malt whisky, Dr. Bill Lumsden experimented by finishing Glenmorangie in Tokaji dessert wine casks. Combining their sweet, honeyed notes with Glenmorangie’s smooth, fruity character gave birth to A Tale of Cake.
Tokaji wines are highly prized dessert wines from the Hungarian region of Tokaj, created using noble-rot grapes. Noble rot fungus (Botrytis cinerea) grows in moist conditions, making grapes shrivel up and concentrating their sugars, to create unique flavours. Glenmorangie sourced a few casks to experiment, and discovered the extraordinarily mellow tastes they could bring to Glenmorangie. Inspired by those early experiments, he revisited Royal Tokaji casks for Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake. He began with the fruity, fragrant spirit distilled in Glenmorangie’s towering copper stills, the tallest in Scotland. With necks the same height as a giraffe, they take Glenmorangie’s whisky on a longer excursion, for a more delicate spirit with more space for taste and aroma. He first aged this spirit in bourbon casks, for Glenmorangie’s signature citrus complexity. Then he transferred the whisky into Tokaji casks to create this limited edition’s wonderful balance of sweet, fruity flavours.
Tasting Notes
Nose: Complex, rich and multi-layered, with a burst of passion fruit, peach, pear, mango.
More savoury notes like baking bread, gentle sappy oak and a curious, flinty minerality emerge. This is then followed by classic Glenmorangie notes like honeycomb, vanilla and almond, with a hint of milk chocolate.
When had with a splash of water: More zesty notes emerge, like apricot, elderflower, honey pollen and peach syrup.
Finish: The lingering aftertaste is a combination of honeycomb, chocolate almond and pecan nuts.
Bottled at 46% ABV
Dr Bill Lumsden (Director of Distilling & Whisky Creation) states, “Like so many of us, some of my favourite memories come from cake, whether it be helping my granny in her kitchen, or the pineapple birthday cake my daughter surprised me with one year. By finishing whisky in Tokaji wine casks, I’ve captured the joy of those indulgent cake moments in Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake. The liquid is a rich copper, but the taste is pure technicolour, luscious, sweet and complex with multi-layered bursts of honey, white chocolate and fruits with a hint of mint. As you might expect, it tastes incredible when enjoyed with actual cake, so it’s fantastic to see Dominique bring it to life in his CakeTails.”
Product Price: INR 6,500 in Gurgaon and INR 12,500 in Mumbai
A note for responsible drinking: The Glenmorangie Company advocates responsible drinking and suggests that drinkers savour Glenmorangie whiskies in moderation and in line with recommended daily guidelines for alcohol consumption.