Glenmorangie Companta Private Edition

Companta, gaelic for 'friendship', is the fifth Glenmorangie Private Edition release, following Sonnalta PX, Finealta, Artein, and Ealanta

Companta has been finished in a combination of wine casks from Clos de Tart and Cotes du Rhone

The reviewed bottle has been open for 13 days and is 90% full

Colour: dark for a malt, with a reddish hue

Nose: strong intensity of raisin, mostly, and also prune. This possesses a very nice balance of sweet and dry, but settling slightly to the dry side. The fruity flavours of wine are what dominate the experience. The wine flavours are mostly on the low side of the middle range in pitch, but there are a few very entertaining, and balancing, pitches here which are high soprano as well. To smell malt you have to look for it. A little water brought out beautiful floral notes of rose, but the fruit receded. Lovely

Taste: very grape-winey, and much drier on the palate than in the nose. Some sweetness emerges in a later wave to counter the quite dry initial greeting. Significant grape tannins are present. Once again, as in the nose, this is all about the wine cask finishing, which dominates this whisky in all respects. Palatal notes are mostly alto and baritone. There are some soprano notes, but fewer than in the nose, unfortunately. Drinking this could be seen more as a wine experience than as one of consuming barley-malt whisky. The quality of the grape flavours is nice, if you like a lot of tannin in your wine-d whisky. For me the tannins are a little heavier than I like

Adding water reduced and diluted the coherence of the wine flavours, and I do not recommend it

Finish: on a thick chewy very tannic block of grape wine skin. With water the finish is not great--like bad dilute over-oxidised wine

Balance: Companta is a very nice whisky which will appeal mostly to those who like their barley-malt to taste more like wine than like the grain barley which defines the drink as whisky. The flavours here alternate between crisp/pointed and rounded, with the wine always dominating. The nose is the highlight for me, both with and without water added. I don't like to DRINK this with water, AT ALL

As Glenmorangie Private Editions go, Companta is one I am always happy to drink, but one of which I do not feel the need to buy my own bottle. Usually I like my whisky to taste more like whisky than Companta does

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