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“So delightul honey! So great vanilla! Am I already dead?”
92
Joh Hansell of Malt Advocate rated this 2009 release of William Larue Weller an amazing 96 points! A great bourbon from Buffalo Trace's Antique Collection.
This dram has a mahogany-like color.
Nose (90): powerful.
corn, vanilla, banana, smashed fruits, vanilla.
“Stunning torrent of flavors! Do yourself a favor an grab one until they last.”
91
A beautiful Speyside malt from the Dailuaine distillery which Master of Malt bottled on the 14th July 2011.
This was distilled at Dailuaine on the 2nd November 1983, and it was aged for 27 years in a refill sherry hogshead, which had an outturn of just 231 bottles.
This is one of the sweetest sherried Speyside malts of this age that we’ve ever tasted – it’s really quite something.
“Epic whisky! It has a bit of everything: malt on nose, fruity as you taste and floral as it finish.”
91
A single cask whisky, bottled by Signatory for their Cask Strength Collection.
This was distilled at Clynelish, in front of the defunct Brora, on the 21st December 1995 and matured in sherry butt 12792 for 13 years before bottling on the 15th September 2009.
A release of 547 bottles of cask strength highland whisky.
This dram has a white wine-like color.
Nose (90): strong.
malt, peaches, apples, honey, vanilla, wood.
Just a few weeks ago Steve Rush from The Whisky Wire invited me to a twasting of one of my all-times favorite whisky: Peat Monster, as well as Great King Street and Spice Tree.
For those of you new to Twitter, a twasting is a tasting driven using twitter.
In this Compass Box Twasting were invited many bloggers: @whiskydrinkeruk @cowfish @peatreekwhisky @dietsch @S_Rob @CocktailEnthus @rodbodtoo @OliverKlimek @galg @whiskytimes @whiskywardrobe @DrinkBritain @mohler @jonmbryant and of course Chris from @CompassBox.
We were offered to taste three great drams from Compass Box range:
Compass Box Great King Street
“A good blended whisky with lots of honey and malt. This is how blended whiskies should be.”
89
The first in Compass Box's Great King Street range, named for the address of their Edinburgh office, kicking off their second decade in business. The Artist's Blend is a high malt content blend designed to be easy drinking and appealing to a wide range of consumers, from non-whisky drinkers and cocktail lovers through to single malt fanatics, and is full of Compass Box innovation and flair.
I have enjoyed this blended whisky. So good that I would even buy it to myself.
@Cowfish has a small problem with his dram #cbtwasting with a bit of air (like if you throw 1/2 the glass into your lap) there’s toffee apples and tinned pears, along with woody spice and @Galg was finding lots of interesting stuff on the taste GKS palate: Creamy, with a zing of gingery lemon . vanilla custard, and some oriental candy, bits of almonds, pistachios #CBtwasting
Everyone was quite happy about this whisky. Really serious stuff, very well done and with a fair price tag.
Compass Box The Spice Tree
“So much honey on this malt with lots of spices and a long citrus finish.”
90
The very welcome return of Compass Box's 'Spice Tree', originally barred by order of the officious twerps at the SWA, but now reincarnated after a slight tweak in production technique - and there's nothing they can do about it. Huzzah!
The longer it was on the glass the more spices I found. Really good dram.
And if you want to nose those spices everyone is speaking about, just give it ten minutes on the glass… you will see.
This dram has a amber-like color.
Nose (90): strong.
honey, fruits, pepper, cocoa, wood, spices, floral, grass.
The more time it is on the glass the more develop the spicy aromas.
People were getting into twasting mood. @CocktailEnthus wrote Spice Tree – smells like the holidays.. toffee, chocolate, nutmeg, baked apples and bourbon #cbtwasting and @jbforbes said #cbtwasting SpiceTree – sweet n maltly rich vanilla and all spice with a distinct cinnamon kick to the finish. Great balance and roundness.
Compass Box The Peat Monster
“Superb whisky from Compass Box. This batch was created using malt from Laphroaig and Ardmore although I swear that has a touch of Ardbeg both on nose and taste. Love it”
90
Compass Box has created a range of incredible artisan vatted, oops, I mean, blended malt whiskies.
This Peat Monster is a top-quality vatting of the peated Speysider Ardmore with some choice Islay malt: sometimes Caol Ila sometimes Laphroaig, Peat Monster is never less than excellent. Pitch-perfect balance and delicious chewy complexity.
This is the best value whisky I have ever had. Even forgeting the price it is a whisky so good that stand over whiskies ten times more expensive. If you like peated whiskies of course :)
It seems this Peat Monster is using a new recipe that is Ardmore+Ledaig+a bit of Laphroaig. Really good dram. I plan to do soon a tasting of this new recipe against the old one but this one is as good as I remembered it.
This dram has a white wine-like color.
Nose (89): more than average.
peat, citrus, honey, salt, motor oil.
Finally at the last drams poets started appearing! @dr_whisky said of Peat Monster: Cigarette smoking through a meal of scrambled eggs, scallops, and strawberry cheescake.
Summary
Overall, it was a great night. I was glad to taste again Peat Monster and seen how good it was. Also the biggest surprise was, for me at least, Compass Box Great King Street. Really solid blended whisky with a great nose and taste.
This was distilled at Mortlach in 1997, aged in bourbon casks, and then finished (at the behest of Bruichladdich's Jim McEwan) in Château d'Yquem premier cru Sauternes casks. Bottled at the Bruichladdich distillery as part of a release of 1,500 bottles.
This dram has a gold-like color.
Nose (86): strong.
floral, juniper, honey, citrus, spices.
This was distilled at the Caperdonich distillery in Speyside in the Spring of 1997 and matured for 12 years in a single refill hogshead (number 5569) before bottling by Douglas Laing for the Provenance range in the Autumn of 2009.
This dram has a white wine-like color.
Nose (89): strong.
floral, honey, apricot, spices, citrus, a little smoke.
“Slightly more spiced than other Talisker whiskies but it does work exactly as well. Good one”
90
A new distillery-bottled cask strength Talisker, 57' North is deceptively smooth for a whisky at this strength, but still a muscular presence on the palate, with the pepper and chilli Talisker hallmarks very much in evidence.
This dram has a amber-like color.
Nose (89): more than average.
peat, honey, spices, flowers, vanilla.
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