Compass Box Three-Year-Old Deluxe

Review by: The Muskox

I was delighted to have taken part in a tasting of Compass Box whiskies with my club the other night. We were joined by Compass Box’s Wester US manager Scott Ellis, who was a delight to talk to and who graciously answered my many questions about boring things like sourcing logistics. I have a bunch of reviews coming from this tasting, some of which were serious bucket-list drams for me.

Like this one, for example. The 3-Year-Old Deluxe is a dram that I’ve wanted to try ever since I first heard about it. For my money, it’s the single best-packaged whisky there is.

As you all know, the minimum legal age for whisky to be bottled at in Scotland is 3 years (plus one day!), and in blends the only disclosable age is that of the youngest component. Prior to 2015, Compass Box routinely and knowingly violated that second law by disclosing the ages of all their blend components on their website. They’d been doing that for over 15 years by then, but it took someone finally sending in a formal complaint for them to get a cease-and-desist from the Scotch Whisky Association. Compass Box tried to lobby for a rule change, where you’d be allowed to disclose the ages of your blend components as long as you also disclosed the proportions of those components, but were shot down.

This whisky, made almost entirely of gloriously old Clynelish and Talisker with a mere 0.4% 3-year-old whisky, was John Glaser’s protest. To this day, this is the only officially age-stated whisky Compass Box has ever released. The 3-year-old component of the whisky was actually the first appearance for Compass Box’s in-house-aged whisky, purchased as new make. These same casks are now used for their Orchard House bottling.

This whisky is a blend of:

  • 90% 24-year-old Clynelish, matured in refill hogsheads.
  • 9.6% 20-year-old Talisker, matured in first-fill sherry butts.
  • 0.4% 3-year-old Clynelish, matured in a first-fill bourbon barrel.

Distillery: Clynelish/Talisker.

Bottler: Compass Box.

Region: Blend.

ABV: 49%.

Age: 3-24 years.

Cask type: Various.

Price: N/A, tasting sample.

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

Nose: It’s Clynelish – Fragrant, floral, and strongly waxy. Green fruit, but not in a “young” sense, just fresh – green banana, coconut water, unripe pineapple, peach, and a little green apple in the background. All kinds of fragrant notes – woody nutmeg and sandalwood, sweet basil and mint, floral white tea. Blasting sea spray and a hint of black pepper foreshadow upcoming Taliskertude. I’ve never been to Hawai’i, but this is what I imagine an unspoiled Hawai’ian rainforest smells like.

Palate:

Medium-thick texture. Arrives with massive candlewax and sweet lemon, giving way to more fruit – green apples, pineapple, pear and grilled banana. Very structured development, with a transition from wax and fruit to firmer spicy notes of black pepper and old oak. There’s a hint of coastal peat now, seaweed and smoked kippers. The brine intensifies.

Finish: Medium-long, cleaning right back up as the smoke diminishes and the paraffin wax returns. Very soft vanilla. Black pepper and charred driftwood. More basil and mint. Sea buckthorn and honeydew.

Possible SMWS bottling name: “Napali Coast waterfall grotto”

Conclusion: Stunningly, immaculately clean. Like, I want to make a bodywash out of this. The freshness of the flavours is eye-opening and sinus-clearing. It’s a technically flawless, perfectly-executed blend. The Clynelish and Talisker are both there, but combined together into something more. The structure on the palate was also noteworthy – Scott attributed that to John Glaser’s winemaking background. There are other reviewers that are more ho-hum on this one, but I love it. This was maybe the third-best whisky of the night.

Final Score: 90.

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.

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