The 10th release in Glenmorangie's award-winning Private Edition series, Allta is the distillery's first single malt to be created with yeast discovered growing wild on Glenmorangie's own barley. Year after year, the award-winning Private Edition celebrates the innovation for which the Glenmorangie Distillery is revered. 

Marrying skill with vision, their pioneering whisky creators have designed a series of unique single malts that deserve to be shared with a select audience of Scotch whisky aficionados. As individual as they are rare, these experimental releases captivate the single malt collector. 

Glenmorangie's Private Edition series reaches double digits with Allta, a single malt Scotch whisky that puts yeast in the spotlight. Yeast has always been one of the crucial components of whisky, but in recent years it has taken a backseat, with other elements taking starring roles. This time, Dr. Bill Lumsden and his team have put yeast front-and-center. Glenmorangie Allta (pronounced 'al-ta') was inspired in part by a conversation Dr. Lumsden had with the legendary late whisky and beer writer Michael Jackson about a 'house' yeast once held at Glenmorangie. While walking through some barley fields near the distillery, Dr. Lumsden picked up some Cadboll barley, brought it back to the lab and discovered a species of wild yeast - Saccharomyces diaemath - growing on it. Some yeasts aren't suitable for distilling, but this particular species was ideal for creating whisky. The yeast was cultivated, and when the barley on which it had grown was ready to use, Dr. Lumsden brought it all together for distillation, with the resulting spirit being aged in ex-bourbon barrels. What impact could wild yeast have on whisky? Allta intends to find out! 

Despite being owned by blenders, MacDonald & Muir, for most of the 20th century, Glenmorangie had an early focus on bottling its single malt. Some records show that its single malt was being sold as early as the late 19th century. This became the distillery's main output in 1959, and with the unique flavours derived from Scotland's tallest stills, Glenmorangie is now one of the world's biggest selling malts. As a result, the distillery portfolio over the years has been extensive, and little has been spared for independent bottlers. Pioneers of cask finishes, the distillery has never shied away from experimentation, and under the guiding hand of Maestro Dr Bill Lumsden they continue to release a variety of expressions to keep "The Sixteen Men of Tain" rushed off their feet.