Glenmorangie's newest product is extra matured in Château d'Yquem casks for 10 years.

The spirit, already 18 years old in 1999 when it was put into these Sauternes barriques, is entitled Pride 1981, and is bottled in a Baccarat cystal decanter designed by Laurence Brabant, housed in a wooden case created by designer Wouter Scheublin.

The whisky is presented at full natural cask strength, 56.7% abv, and is pungent and bold, with myriad aromas, including dark chocolate, orange, jasmine, and a savoury, almost-rancio character. The concentrated, rich palate is honeyed, but with an almost-salty chocolate bitterness too. In the words of Glenmorangie head of distilling and whisky creation, Dr Bill Lumsden, Pride is 'big, intense and sweet, with crème brûlée, cinnamon, ginger, clove, baked apricots, and then hazelnuts in milk chocolate.'

One to savour, then, with all that complexity, not to mention the £2,500 price tag for each of the 1,000 one-litre bottles created.

Pride 1981 is one of many of Lumsden's investigations into oak-ageing that have come to fruition. 'I conducted a series of experiments as distillery mananger, between 1994 and 1998. When I then moved into my current role, I went mad and carried out lots of experiments,' he says. Past experimentation with Sauternes casks have resulted in the relatively more accessible Nectar d'Or, aged for 10 years in bourbon barrels, followed by two in Sauternes barrels.

Pride 1981 is available in the UK from a number of stockists, including The Whisky Exchange in London, and Gordon & Macphail in Scotland. It is aleady listed at The Lanesborough, as well as at Gleneagles.

News item from Imbibe.com, 20-07-2011