It's the Chosen one... literally. Whisky aficionados have wetted the head of a brand new malt by christening it Taghta, Gaelic for Chosen.
Pronounced tuh-ta, the Glenmorangie single malt, which has spent years extra-maturing in exclusive Manzanilla sherry casks, is the first in the world to have its name chosen by whisky fans.
Glenmorangie received thousands of suggestions for the malt's name. These were then whittled down to three; Taghta, Coileanta (Gaelic for Mastery) and Salainn (Gaelic for salt), which were put to an online vote.
Dr Aonghas MacCoinnich, a researcher in the history of the Highlands at the University of Strathclyde who helped Glenmorangie choose the shortlist, said: "As predicted, it was really difficult to pick out the best three names from the thousands of entries we received from across the world.
"The public have now chosen their favourite and I'm very pleased with the result. It really is a good 'choice' in all senses of the word. Taghta is widely used in Gaelic meaning something that is excellent, choice or chosen and it used to convey the idea of something that is well done."
The dram was chosen and named as part of Glenmorangie's crowdsourcing Cask Masters whisky creation programme, which aims to get enthusiasts and members of the public involved in the whisky-making process. The five stage programme allows fans to chose and name whiskies and encourages them to get involved in the packaging and promotion of their dram creations.
Glenmorangie is now asking whisky fans to upload photos and ideas to its Cask Masters website to help inspire and create the packing for Taghta.
Dr Bill Lumsden, director of distilling and whisky creation at Glenmorangie, said: "This name truly resonates and I don't think we could have done any better if we'd chosen it ourselves! Glenmoranige has already taken inspiration from Gaelic for the names of some of its most famous creations and we are delighted that this unique whisky has such an intriguing name."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article