Beverage of the Week: Glenmorangie's got a whisky for everyone (and a wonderful 14 year malt)

The $55 14 year brings an explosion of flavor -- and holds up compared to the smoother, more mellow (and expensive) 18 year.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

I started this column for two reasons; to write what I love (and continue living a life in which I have the job described by a 15 year old dirtbag) and to get paid for sipping whisky. Friends, today is the realization of that dream. We’re drinking scotch.

My typical malt comes from Islay, where you can taste the ocean air in each warming dram of Laphroaig or Lagavulin or my personal favorite, Bunnahabhain (where, sadly, I can no longer find my preferred Ceobanach, which absolutely ruled). But I’m happy to drink anything from the wonderful sovereign nation, particularly from Glenmorangie’s region to the north of Scotland.

My normal Highland malt is Dalwhinnie; a distillery capable of making a $80 spirit at a $30 price tag (their former Game of Thrones branded House Stark scotch) and a $120 one for $60 (their 15 year). But Glenmorangie retains a presence in my brain, even if I rarely drink it. First off, it’s because it’s available everywhere and at a ton of different ages and price points. But secondly, it’s because it’s the favorite whisky of New York Giants punter Jamie Gillan.

Gillan, nicknamed the Scottish Hammer, is a native of Inverness and a former rugby player who worked his way up from little-regarded high school prospect to veteran NFL special teamer. When I talked to him four years ago he covered everything from how he ended up on scholarship at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (via Facebook post and accepted sight-unseen) to his Scottish roots. And his favorite malt? Glenmorangie.

So we’re gonna do a quick distillery tour, sipping whisky that ranges from 10 years to 18 years in age.