Nose: A lovely and rich nose, with a nice combination of sweetness and funkiness : citrus fruit and vanilla (mostly orange and grapefruit), candy (candy floss, and marshmallow) alongside spices (fresh ground peppercorns, cinnamon). There’s also orchard fruit, mainly green pear and some mint as well. Some people said it smelled a bit young (some new make-ish notes), but I found it quite balanced, and the wood not over-powering. This is clearly different than your average Glenmorangie. It is funky but don’t expect too much funk, it’s wild but not too wild..

Palate: Oily and full with a fun combination of sweetness, citrus fruit, a nice maltiness, and sweet pastries alongside grapefruit , Scottish tablet, and a honeyed note which is nicely balanced by the lemony notes. There’s quite some wood indeed, but not overpowering, and i find it contributes to the balance and complexity. Fun stuff and easy sipping at 51.2% abv even without water.

Finish: Medium length, with mint, wood spices, and lemon rind.

Conclusion: A very successful experiment IMHO. While not overly ‘wild’ the Allta is highly drinkable and offers a different flavor profile than your average Glenmorangie. Among the better Private Edition of recent years. Always fun seeing such editions emerge from big whisky brands, who allow themselves to experiment with different parameters that affect the whisky.

The colour is dark gold. The nose starts with notes of bread and wort, and goes to sweet-earthy notes of fruits, citrus, spices, cumin, mushrooms, truffles, vegetables, minerality, apples, plums, berries jam and black pepper. The palate is sweet with bread, fruits, caramel, spices, cumin, perfume, black pepper and mushrooms notes. The finish is long with spices, oak, fruits, vanilla, apples and black pepper notes. This is an interesting, well balanced and unusual Glenmorangie. It’s a strange, but interesting. Allta could be liked or no, but it can’t to leave indifference. I like it.