The Glenmorangie Cadboll Estate 15 Year Old Scotch Review (Batch 2, 2021)

By Richard Thomas

Rating:B+

The premise behind The Glenmorangie’s Cadboll Estate line of single malt whisky is simple. The distillery is taking their estate-grown barley from the lands around the distillery itself. The whisky is matured for 15 years (or more) in first-fill examples of the most common cask type used in Scotland, ex-bourbon barrels. No finishes, no peat, no twists of any kind really, as it is bottled at pretty average 43% ABV. Thus, Cadboll Estate Single Malt is a very straightforward presentation of The Glenmorangie’s own barley, made into whisky.

The Scotch
A pour of this Glenmorangie has a coloring that straddles the border between gold and copper. The scent was sweet with licorice laid into a tall glass of orange cream and vanilla soda, enjoyed in a field of late summer, cut and dried straw awaiting baling. A sip reveals a creamy mouthfeel, and a flavor profile that builds on the nose by adding a note of sweet, wet tobacco leaf and sees the citrus fruit transition to pear syrup. Those sweet aspects fade away altogether, with the dry straw evolving into dry, spicy wood on the finish.

The Price

A bottle of The Glenmorangie Cadboll Estate 15 Year Old, batch 1 or 2, is officially priced at about $85. I see it most often priced at $90 online, but that could merely reflect local taxes.