Review by: The Muskox

In figuring out how to pass the time until the NBA finals (these 9:00 tip-offs are gonna kill me…), I turned, as I so often do, to my wall of booze, and picked something at random. It’s been a while since I reviewed a Compass Box, and this one’s as old-school as it gets. Released between 2002 and 2005, there’s no fancy super-charred new French Oak, opulent labels, or too-young-to-legally-be-whisky-malt-spirit in sight, just pure Clynelish+Caol Ila goodness. Hell, they were still calling it “vatted malt” back then. Holy crap, I was eight years old in 2005.

This whisky is a vatting of:

• 15-year-old Clynelish, matured in recharred hogsheads.
• 12-year-old Caol Ila.

---

Distillery: Blend (Clynelish/Caol Ila)

Bottler: Compass Box.

Region: Blend.

ABV: 46%.

Age: 12-15 years.

Cask type: Various.

Price: N/A, sample.

Color: Light gold. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

---

Nose: My very first impression was crusty Italian bread dipped in olive oil. Some perfumey candle wax, especially retronasally. It then curls off into fresh citrus and ginger. Some crisp apple and pear. Slightly grassy peat smoke. Some very sweet basil in there too. Barley sugar, honey, and earth start to emerge after another few minutes.

A few drops of water added a coastal, seaweedy note, as well as crystallized pineapple.

Palate: Medium texture. Waxy in both taste and feel. Honey and clementine build to spicy ginger, poblano and chipotle pepper, peat smoke and candied flowers (hibiscus). Fragrant wood, toffee, demerara sugar, vanilla, dark chocolate, and peppercorns on the back end.

Water amped up the meatiness and the spice. Now there’s salami with paprika and peppercorns with some fresh horseradish, as well as more grassy notes in the peat. Maybe some of those Ritz cheese crackers? That’s a new one.

Finish: Well-balanced. Pear, fresh ginger, chipotle, tobacco, basil and green wood. Pepper-spiced peat smoke, a bit of ham, and a touch of salt. Rich dark chocolate on the tail end, as well as lemon tarts and vanilla.

---

Conclusion: Sometimes simpler really is better. I think everyone knows by now how well Clynelish and Caol Ila blend together, and the best parts of both show up here. The dark chocolate, the peppers, the flowers, the wax, the fresh fruit… delicious. It improved with water too, which I sort of expected. The one point to knock it on is that it suffers more than I would have expected from the bottling strength. Bring this up to CS and you have a juggernaut on your hands.

Final Score: 87.

---

Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.