Glenmorangie Signet — Darkness in Motion
By Rafi Mercer
Some whiskies lean into lightness, into fruit and air. Glenmorangie Signet does the opposite. It is whisky built on roasted “chocolate malt” barley, dark-roasted before distillation, giving the spirit a depth and richness rarely found in Scotch. Released in 2008, it immediately stood apart in Glenmorangie’s range — a Highland dram with intensity, complexity, and modern flair. Where the classic 10-year is citrus-bright, Signet is shadow and velvet.
Glenmorangie, founded in 1843, has long been associated with elegance and innovation. Its tall stills — the tallest in Scotland — produce a famously delicate spirit. But Signet bends that DNA into something new. By combining roasted barley with a mix of bourbon, sherry, and virgin oak casks, the distillery created a whisky that feels contemporary, layered, almost architectural in its boldness. It is Glenmorangie, but with edges sharpened and colours darkened.
In the glass, Signet shows deep amber with a reddish glow. The nose offers espresso, dark chocolate, cinnamon, orange zest, and a trace of smoke. On the palate, it is rich and textural: cocoa, bitter chocolate, dried fruit, nutmeg, clove, all carried on a velvety mouthfeel. Sweetness and bitterness trade places, like light and shadow flickering across a wall. The finish is long and warming, with coffee, spice, and oak resonating together. It is whisky that feels like movement through a nocturnal landscape.
Its place in the Tracks & Tales Guide to the Top 50 Whiskies is assured not just for its flavour but for its vision. Signet proves that innovation in whisky does not have to mean gimmickry; it can mean deepening tradition with creativity. It is bold without being brash, modern without losing heritage. For those exploring the Highland style, Signet offers a darker counterpoint — whisky that shows how flavour can be sculpted into drama.
Its musical twin is Radiohead’s Kid A. Released in 2000, it was a radical departure for the band, moving away from guitars into electronic textures, fractured beats, and abstract layers. Like Signet, it felt unexpected at first — dense, opaque, unsettling — but over time it revealed itself as one of the most influential works of its era. Both whisky and album are about disorientation that becomes fascination, about the rewards of immersion when the surface feels difficult.
In a listening bar, the pairing is almost cinematic. Pour a dram of Signet as “Everything in Its Right Place” begins, Thom Yorke’s voice looping over electronic hum. The whisky’s coffee and chocolate tones mirror the music’s depth, its slight bitterness echoing the album’s unease. By the time “How to Disappear Completely” drifts in, the whisky has softened on the tongue, fruit and spice emerging like melody through fog. Both experiences remind us that art is not always about comfort; it can be about discovery.
Glenmorangie Signet is not a whisky you stumble into. It is one you seek, or one you’re given by a bartender who knows the right moment. It is not the Highland style in its simplest form; it is Highland whisky pushed into new dimensions. It is a dram for evenings when the room is ready for depth, for sound that bends expectation, for experiences that linger.
And perhaps the next step is to find a bar where that depth is celebrated — a room with dim light, shelves lined with bottles chosen for boldness, a sound system tuned for records like Kid A. Because Signet, like Radiohead’s masterpiece, finds its true power in atmosphere, in the spaces where darkness and resonance meet.
Rafi Mercer writes about the spaces where music matters. For more stories from Tracks & Tales, subscribe, or click here to read more.
