The Glenmorangie Company and Moet Hennessy USA announced today that Glenmorangie Original, Scotland’s favorite single malt, has become kosher certified by the Orthodox Union (OU), the world’s largest and most respected kosher certification agency. Additionally, its pioneering new expression, Glenmorangie Astar, has also become kosher-certified.
The company is one of the most renowned and innovative distillers and marketers of Scotch whiskey brands worldwide and is part of Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits division of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH). New packaging and promotional materials bearing the OU symbol will be distributed nationwide beginning in the next few months.
“We take great pride in producing Scotland’s favorite single malt whisky, using the finest Scottish barley and hand-selected American white oak casks of only the highest quality. The OU Kosher certification will bring our iconic brand to an entirely new consumer base that can now enjoy our products,” said Brian Cox, USA Brand Director, Glenmorangie.
“The OU rigorously monitors of all aspects of production. It supervises the process by which the whisky is created, examines the raw ingredients used to make Glenmorangie and regularly inspects the distilling and bottling facilities to make sure that its standards are met,” explained Mr. Cox.
“We are very pleased to have Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch Whisky become the first major single malt scotch brand to attain OU certification,” said Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, OU Kosher’s Vice President of Communications and Marketing. “It was also gratifying for the OU to guide the Glenmorangie company through the certification process and bring this famous Single Malt brand to the growing kosher market place. It was rewarding for OU Kosher’s team, headed by Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz and Dr. Avraham Meyer, to collaborate with the Glenmorangie team to bring these renowned products to an ever-growing kosher market place.”
NOTE FROM YWN: Please visit the YWN Kashrus Korner to read the latest update on the recent Kashrus problem found with many popular whiskey – and many other Kashrus alerts and information.
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17 Responses
don’t they use wine in the casks?
No problem in YWN publishing a press release from a company that has just got hashgocha from the OU or anyone else, the opposuite, it is good to know how the kosher market is expanding. But please publish it as that not as a news item. It is obvious that the sentence “The Glenmorangie Company and Moet Hennessy USA announced today that Glenmorangie Original, Scotland’s favorite single malt, has become kosher certified by the Orthodox Union (OU), the world’s largest and most respected kosher certification agency.” comes from the company’s ad agency. YWN, please do the same as most newspapers do in such circumstances – write “Communicated”.
The london beis din has always maintained that it was kosher.
It’s sure to be most of the most popular OU certified products. While not my favorite, it is quite a pleasant dram. I wonder if the OU will also approve their Port Wood and Madeira finishes relying on the psak of Rav Moshe?
Now at the real heimish simchas there will be something besides Hamashka and Old Williamsburg.
didn’t know “expressions” needed certification!
Hoidu lashem ki tov ki leolam chasdo. Blessed be the owners of Glenmorangie for their chesed shel emes to klal yisroel. I think all the kiddush clubs in the 5 towns should make Glenmorangie the official whisky and make a kiddush this Shabbos in its honor.
I”m surprised because Glenmorangie is know to use specifically sherry casks. Does this mean that the OU certifies whiskey made with sherry casks or that they are certifying that at least “Glenmorangie Original” will be made w/o sherry casks?
Here comes all the amoratzim with their baseless opinions & silly questions.
Bottom line its a great development because people put out questionable shnapps by their simcha and the guests assume that what the host puts out is reliable.
The more quality shnapps there are out there with hechsherim the easier it will be to pressure baalay simcha to only put out the stuff with the hechsher.
What’s the difference? It’s the OU (Rav Belsky) and that’s it. Goes great with herring.
1. Glenmorangie do NOT use sherry casks across their whole range as opposed to Macallan for example who do. Every single Macallan bottling is oloroso-sherry based. Glenmorangie original is not sherry or wine based. Probably hence the Hechsher.
2. There is a major misconception out there that only whisky which is sherry based is “potentially” a problem. Potentially whiskey which has been in any wine based cask is potentially a problem. The well known whiskey casks that have been used prior for wine are Port, Burgundy, Madeira and Bourdeaux. There are numerous others and it is worth checking on the type of maturation.
3. Dayan Westheim in the Uk gave a shiur on whisky a couple of years ago. He said that the Heter of Reb Moshe was based on a Minchas Yitzchok, and Dayan Westheim claims that the Minchas Yitchok was Choizer and that the Metzius has changed. Whilst he did not Assur wine based whisky, he got as close to it as he could without risking being lynched. Privated, he holds and tells people that wine based and ALL double or triple matured whiskies must not be drunk (excuse the pun). He holds that if you already have these bottles, they are not Ossur B’hano’o and can be sold.
4. Dayan Westheim basically said in that shiur that you should read the label on the bottle AND on the tube/box. If sherry or wine based maturation is not mentioned then you can drink it even if you know that it has been matured in these casks. The reason being that the maturation does not have the Chashivus of sherry or wine otherwise they would write and publicise this on their labels, as it sells for more money.
hello99 – You are absolutely not correct. some glenmorangie’s use port, madera, or sherry casks. BUT the basic 10 year old and i suspect the other are NOT made in wine casks.
yaacov doe, I doubt the OU will rely on RMF ztl on this issue; they have not to date. if you go to their restaurants, they allow multiple single malts that do not ADVERTISE wine casks on their labels. Now they are going a step further and checking/certifying this brand.
Although this IS great news, it is important to note that the TOMINTOUL collection are also certified by the OU, that includes the 10 Year, 16 Year, Peaty Tang, & the Reserve 31 Year old, they are GREAT Whiskeys, ENJOY!!!
3, they maintain many items are kosher, alas…..
I do not think any alcohol tastes good unless it is very sweet and of course that is almost never the case especially with whiskys and vodkas (all the hard liquer).
I’ll just stick with Malaga wine (which sometimes I ad my own sugar, to).
Oh Heiniken, the one called “Special Dark”, is pretty good as well.
what about pesach? do the owners sell thier chometz?
Yaakov Doe
Please dont say Rav Moshe’s psak. I think it is much more approprite to call it a Heter like Joshie did.
I believe that Rav Moshe wrote in the tshuva that he would drink it if offered so it would not be “mechi k’yura”. Does not sould like he said it was mutar lchatchila.