Spirited away by a dram of the finest

Sitting in the lobby of the SkyCity Grand at 11am on a weekday morning with half a dozen single malts open in front of me is hardly a good look, even when I am with David Blackmore, Master Brand Ambassador for whisky company Glenmorangie, and these bottles are some of the most desirable in the world.
An elderly American tourist lurking by the lifts saunters over. "Say, whattcha got there? Lord, you Kiwis sure get on the good stuff early."
Blackmore offers him a snifter of Glenmorangie Original. "Damn straight that's fine whisky," he says, setting the glass down. "I'm mighty grateful to you folks but our tour bus just arrived and my wife is lookin' at me mean - so I'll say so long," and, with a twist of his belt-bag, he swaggers away.
Born and raised in Edinburgh, Blackmore is responsible for Glenmorangie's brand education programmes across the US. He's a professional whisky tutor with encyclopaedic knowledge and a sophisticated nose that can distinguish single malts from across Scotland at a single sniff and, in 2009, he was named Brand Ambassador of the Year by the influential Whisky Life Magazine.
I was expecting this whisky brand master to be an old, balding, crusty with a red spider naevi nose, the reek of old cigars and moth-eaten cardigans - hardly the fresh-faced, dapper dude in front of me, but I'm a sucker for surprises.
About now you're probably wondering why this wine column is about whisky. Well, the link is in the ageing process. Glenmorangie is the first company that chose to tinker with its whisky by maturing a selection of its best single malts in wine barrels to enhance the flavour. Its makers use port, sherry and sauternes barrels and these whiskies are called the "extra matured" range.
"We send the whiskies off to finishing school for six months to get an exotic accent and some personality quirks, which count as extra-maturation," laughs Blackmore.
Glenmorangie uses its casks only twice, whereas the industry standard is at least three or four times. Think of it as being like a teabag. Pour water over it and you've got a good cuppa. Pour water over it a second time and you're cheating someone a little bit; put it through three or four times and ... well, you get the picture.
Glenmorangie's "original" has been the biggest selling single malt in Scotland for the past 50 years, "so to further mature Glenmorangie we needed to do something a bit different to layer on a second tier of aroma and flavour", says Blackmore.
The La Santa (meaning passion or warmth, in Scots Gaelic) is richly coloured from two years in Oloroso sherry barrels. The sherry and marmalade notes are lovely and, combined with grainy, minerally notes, it's a revelation. I think it smells like Christmas cake spices.
"My mother used to bake her Christmas cakes wrapped in newspaper and that papery, smoky minerality is definitely there," agrees Blackmore "You have a great nose" and, he adds, a split second later, "your sense of smell isn't bad either" ... cue an embarrassed giggle from me.
Flirtation aside, Blackmore believes women have a superior "smelling" ability. "It's no coincidence that the person who's responsible for the consistency of everything bottled by Glenmorangie is a woman. She has a freakish sense of smell."
The Quinta Ruban is next. Ruban means "ruby red" in Scots Gaelic and "quinta" is a nod to the Portuguese bodega. The whisky has spent 10 years in white oak, then spends two years in 435-litre ruby port pipes.
"Although it is not the most expensive port in the world, ruby gives the most fruit-forward character, which is what we like," offers Blackmore. "What's fascinating to me with this whisky is that when you sniff it you instantly get that red berry, red jam, cherry, strawberry sweetness, and what's really cool is that, in the mouth, it is strong, velvety and dry; not sweet at all. I can put my cards on the table now and say the Quinta Ruban is my favourite of the extra-matured range."
Glenmorangie was the first company to tinker with single malts like this. Yes, it's experimental and innovative, but at the same time, the origins of Scotch whisky date back to moonshiners taking their whisky and throwing it into whatever vessel they could find.
The Nectar d'Or - or "golden nectar" is aged for two years in used sauternes barrels sourced from a smorgasbord of prestigious producers in France.
"Our master distiller describes this as reminding him of going to Paris, waking up early and going to the patisserie for breakfast, walking in the door and smelling all the freshly-baked, buttered croissants, brioche with raisins and tarte citron with the lemony notes - it's all here in the whisky."
Blackmore informs me that it is tradition to pour a slug of whisky over one's breakfast porridge in Scotland. "Any excuse," he laughs.
The Nectar d'Or has an incredibly smooth finish; it's round, plump and plush. We add a drop of water to it to see how it changes.
The Scottish term for adding water to whisky is "releasing the serpent". Hardly inappropriate, it describes the way you see the water swirling through the whisky in the glass. "But," adds Blackmore, "if I'm taking a whisky class and wearing a kilt, the minute I mention "raising the serpent" people completely crack up."