As I mentioned in another related thread, as a consolation prize for not being able to enjoy my much anticipated special single malt experience last week in San Francisco, I purchased for myself a bottle of Glenmorangie Artein 15yr single malt special bottling and brought it back, not having seen it locally at home. I got around to giving it a taste the other night and greatly enjoyed it. The Artein is a 2:1 mix of 15yr old:21yr old whiskies that spent their last few years in "Super Tuscan" wine casks for finishing, another of Glenmorangie's line of special wine cask finishings, in fact the newest late 2011 release. The wine finishing has made an exceptionally smooth and soft tasting malt, with a lot of strong fruity, floral, even minty flavours up in the front half of the mouth with an exceptionally soft and almost imperceptible finish over the back of the tongue and mouth-----very little if any peat or smoke back bite in the finish. Very pleasing on the palate. By far the most fruity mouth and softest finish of all the various wine cask finished Glenmorangies I have tasted to date (portwood, burgundy wood, sherry wood, Nector D'or, LaSanta, Sonnalta, Finealta, Quinta Ruban, Astar, 18 yr old, Signet, and 25 yr old), although I must admit like my children they are all different but I love them each equally in degree but different ways.

The name Artein supposedly relates to the gaelic word for stone, and something similar in local tuscan lingo that relates to the colloquial name for the tuscan wine in the same casks, and is supposed to be representative of the dense limestone through which the spring water (spring on Glenmorangie's distillery property) courses on its way to the surface, in addition to relating to an ancient pictish stone formation also on the Glenmorangie distillery property (and used in their label trademark). It is also supposed to symbolize the harsh conditions and rocky soil in which the grapes for the Super Tuscan wine are grown.

Bottle around $70-80US for 750ml, haven't seen it locally but it was supposedly bottled for primary distribution in the US so should be available to most.