The Glenmorangie Highland Distillery has inaugurated a new multi-million-pound distillery- The Lighthouse. The new distillery is “a new house of imagination” for the whiskey creators’ team and is located beside the main distillery. The distillery allows the freedom for experimentation and innovation of ideas; ultimately, giving life to their new, latest and imaginative Scottish whiskies.
“Our Lighthouse distillery is a shining beacon on the Highland coastline, at the heart of our distillery”.
The new distillery has a glass stillhouse of a height of 20m which looks like an actual Lighthouse on the sea, from miles. The distillery’s design is different from the traditional stone buildings of the main Distillery but it reflects the signature single malt’s creativity.
The Lighthouse distillery has signature ‘giraffe-high’ copper stills, which produces the Glenmorangie’s delicate, fruity spirit. The new stills are equipped with modifications for making all kinds of innovation possible. Above the stillhouse is a purpose-built sensory laboratory, where Dr Bill can perform new creations. The sensory lab also includes a tasting room and a terrace.
The Lighthouse distillery adopts the sustainability concept by partially powering the distillery with biogas generated in Glenmorangie’s anaerobic digestion plant.
“The technology in [The Lighthouse], particularly in the still house, is not revolutionary, but I can’t think of any other still house in the Scotch whisky industry where you have split condensers, copper and stainless steel, you’ve got a water-cooling jacket on the neck, you’ve got a purifier on the lyne arm; essentially, we can recreate any style of distillation that we want in that. New make spirit in the Scotch whisky industry is usually categorised, so Glenmorangie’s classic flavour profile is floral and fruity, whereas others might be waxy, sulphurous, peated all these things. So The Lighthouse will allow me to create the full spectrum of spirit styles. The necks of Glenmorangie are the tallest in the Scotch malt whisky industry, but by using, for example, the water cooling jackets on the necks to increase the rate of reflux, it’s almost like metaphorically, I will be able to double or treble the height of the stills. I can’t off the top of my head think of any other malt whisky distillery that has a built-in water cooling jacket on the neck of the stills – probably if you look it’ll be somewhere in the world, but this is the first time I’ve seen it.”
Dr Bill Lumsden, Director of Whisky Creation Director of Whisky Creation said:
“Global demand for Glenmorangie is growing significantly. The first of its kind, our Lighthouse experimental distillery is the keystone of our plans to stay at the forefront of taste innovation. By giving our talented creative team free rein, we will welcome even more consumers worldwide to enjoy delicious whiskies.”
Thomas Moradpour, President and CEO of The Glenmorangie Company, said:
The idea for The Lighthouse Distillery
“I went to the former CEO, Marc Hoellinger, six or seven years ago, and I was playing a little bit of a game with him and I said, Mark, I’m bored, I need a new challenge, I want to do something else. I said, off the top of my head, if you give me £25 million I will go and build a completely new malt whisky distillery, and I guarantee you I will make spirit even better in quality than Glenmorangie. I explained to him how I would do this.”
He thought about it and said, Bill, I like your idea, but he said to start a completely new brand – and that’s what I was talking about doing, it was going to be a completely standalone brand, separate from Glenmorangie or Ardbeg – he said it takes many, many, many years to successfully establish a new brand. So he said, how about I give you this much, and you do something at either Glenmorangie or Ardbeg. So that’s where the idea came from. And it took two or three years to refine my thought process to plan it all out, and that’s when we got to The Lighthouse. And it was kind of a no-brainer to site it at Glenmorangie distillery so we could label the output from that as Glenmorangie.”
Dr Bill Lumsden said to The Spirits Business–
Glenmorangie Lighthouse whisky
Glenmorangie has created a limited edition whisky:- Glenmorangie Lighthouse, to mark the celebration of The Lighthouse Distillery. The whisky combines liquid matured in Bourbon and Sherry casks, whose staves now adorn the walls of The Lighthouse.
- NOSE: Notes of vanilla, red apples, honeycomb and a ‘whisper’ of oak.
- PALATE: Notes of honey, almond, milk chocolate, apricot, fudge, baked oranges, honeydew melon.
- FINISH: Orange, vanilla and oaky notes on the finish.
- BOTTLED AT: 48% ABV
The limited-edition whiskey will be available for £85 (US$117) from the distillery visitor centre. Only 3,000 bottles of whiskey will be exclusively available.
About Glenmorangie Distillery Co.
The Glenmorangie Distillery was founded by farmer William Matheson and his wife Anne. In 1843, the distillery took its birth when the couple decided to follow their dream and set up a distillery to craft single malt whiskies. The distillery is located at Tain, Ross-shire, Scotland. The neck of copper stills used for distillation is as tall as a giraffe and are the tallest in Scotland. The Tarlogie Springs, Glenmorangie’s water source and most prized asset, is the product of rain that has been forcing its way through layers of limestone and sandstone for a hundred years. This gives the whiskies their signature fruity and delicate spirit flavour. The product range includes- The Original, X By Glenmorangie, The Nectar d’Or, The Quinta Ruban 14 Years Old, Grand Vintage Malt 1993, Signet, Pride 1981, Bacalta 2017, Allta 2019, etc.
Cheers and celebration to the new Lighthouse Distillery. You can even visit the Glenmorangie House and experience the rugged beauty of the Highlands.