[Highland] Glenmorangie Infinita 18 First Pour Review

Picked up Glenmorangie The Infinita 18 Years from Wooseong Green Mart, a well-known whisky shop in Seoul. After falling for the 16-year Nectar from the same distillery, I wanted to see how far up the range it scales. Paid with an Onnuri gift voucher (7% discount, domestic scheme), which landed it in a reasonable spot. Cracked the box the moment I got home and poured straight away.

No buyer’s remorse here. I would buy it again.

From Extremely Rare to The Infinita

This bottle got a name change in 2024. The old “Extremely Rare 18 Years Old” became “The Infinita 18 Years Old,” and the packaging moved to a cobalt-blue gift box. The public recipe remains the familiar Glenmorangie 18 structure: 15 years in bourbon casks, then a portion finished in Oloroso sherry casks before blending back.

The recipe itself is a weirdly specific build. Distilled at the Glenmorangie distillery in Tain, Highland, matured in ex-bourbon (American white oak) casks for 15 years. About 30% of that stock gets moved into Oloroso sherry casks for another 3 years, then blended back. 43% ABV, 700ml. Same broad liquid profile as the old 18, just wearing a new name now.

Tasting notes

Poured into a copita, left for about 10 minutes, then went in.

Nose

Zero alcohol burn, which surprised me the most. 43% obviously helps, but opening this cleanly on pour one wasn’t what I expected.

Cool orange and citrus sweetness leads. Behind it, a lighter honey-water kind of sugar, and a faint wisp of smoke drifting past. Feels a bit like a more refined Benromach 10 - same backbone of sweet smoke, but a few steps smoother. Where Benromach runs young and rough around the edges, this one has the same shape sanded down.

Palate

Glazed doughnut. Straight up. Sugary glaze, the slight oiliness, the doughy middle - all of it.

A little nut follows, and the malt carries enough weight to hold the sweetness up. The smoke that only brushed past on the nose gets more room here. Nowhere near peated-whisky territory - it’s one layer of smoke threading under the sweetness, not smothering it.

Finish

This was the unexpected bit. The sherry finally shows up properly. I’d assumed the 70% bourbon share meant vanilla and coconut would dominate the tail, but the last thing on the palate is sherry.

Not a heavy, sticky sherry either. It’s sherry with the weight lifted off. Not as syrupy as PX, not as dense as a full-maturation oloroso. The 30% ratio feels exactly right for the balance it pulls off.

The smoke that showed up earlier mostly burns off here. What lingers is a quiet malty tail that keeps going a while. Smoke rises, peaks on the palate, then drops out, and you’re left with sherry and malt. A lot of moving parts for a single pour.

Where it sits in the Glenmorangie lineup

The entry is The Original 10, then Lasanta 15 (oloroso + PX), Quinta Ruban 14 (port finish), The Nectar 16 (Sauternes / white wine finish), The Infinita 18, and Signet at the top.

Infinita is bourbon-led with only a 30% sherry share, so the opening is citrus and vanilla and the sherry only catches you on the back end. If you want something heavier on the sherry side, Lasanta 15 sitting below it is full sherry maturation - I haven’t tried that one myself, so I can’t compare directly.

If you want oloroso finishes at a lower price point, I wrote up Royal Brackla 12 earlier - the sherry is pushed out more up-front there, where Infinita keeps every element thin and stacked. For something actually sherry-forward, GlenAllachie 15 is on a completely different level. Benriach 12 The Twelve is a multi-cask bourbon/sherry/port build - different direction again, different price tier, but worth a read if complexity is the angle you care about.

Wrap-up

An 18-year single malt this balanced on the very first pour isn’t common. No alcohol bite out of the gate, and the nose/palate/finish each show a different face without breaking apart. Price aside, the liquid stands on its own.

Rating 4.3. Going from the 16-year Nectar up to the 18 was the right call. I’ll pour another two or three weeks in and take notes again, curious whether the sherry deepens further, or whether the bourbon vanilla climbs up instead.

Overall: ★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.3 / 5