Tastes

On the nose, toffee and oak are about all I can pick out. But then I taste, and it's heavy in oak spice and toasted malt. Someone said it tastes kinda like the filling of a warm apple pie, spices and all. I have to say I agree to an extent. Adding a couple drops of water brings a slight smokiness to the nose and a creamy tres leches character to the palate. Nutty, perhaps walnut or praline at the end. This is a rich dram overall. The finish is long and oaky.

Malty, fruity, floral nose. The palate skips right by quickly, but then it finishes this creamy fruity kinda way that I really appreciate.

Leather, brown sugar, cinnamon on the nose. A bite of ethanol as well. Ethanol is what I get first on the palate and I’m waiting for something else to develop. Taking a second sip, it’s heavy oak spice. Add that to the proof and I can’t find much else. Maybe some cherry Twizzler on the back end. It drinks heftier than it is, which I don’t appreciate, but I do like the flavors dancing in my mouth and throat at the moment.

Cream and white chocolate meet barley on the palate. They greet each other and part fairly quickly, but the finish is pleasant with tres leches and floral notes. Pretty darn good for an 80 proof blend, but then again, it is Compass Box. They don’t just go around making suck tastes.

On the nose, it’s spicy. I have a hard time distinguishing between oak spice and rye spice, and I do believe I get both. The palate is more like a high rye bourbon. I found out later that it’s 51% rye, which makes a ton of sense. Cinnamon apple, nutmeg, paprika, and some anise. Oak and Christmas cookie on the finish. This is damn fine.

Second taste edit: I popped the bottle after a long hiatus and dried apricot permeated my workspace. Solid daily drinker. It’s clearly a single malt, rich in barley flavor, along with peach and caramel. The nose gives me some oregano, peach and savory smoked chicken. Peaches n cream is the predominant lingering flavor on the finish. Very affordable and accessible for how good it is.

This is excellent. Clearly better than Antique, but not into the 4.75 conversation as of now. The nose gives me a lovely bready or cakey vibe, with plenty of well-rounded vanilla and warming spices. Then the palate reiterates how well-composed the dram is, offering brown sugar, wheat, light char, nutmeg, and dark chocolate caramel. It all plays together so well, and there are no jagged edges. It’s remarkably smooth for the proof. The finish lingers for quite a while with baking spice. I can’t say that it won’t be in the 4.75 range by the time the bottle is empty, but as of right now, I like it at 4.5.

It’s definitely big. Kinda reminiscent of the Elijah Craig BP that just blew my doors off, but not quite that intense. On the nose, it’s very bright and fresh, floral, giving some copper and cherry notes as well as a steady stream of ethanol. On the palate, there’s a lot going on. Ethanol first, then cherry and oak spice, some mint, a slight breadiness, more of that freshness from the nose with some herbal notes, more ethanol. Then from the tail of the midpalate on through the finish, drying cinnamon (a la Hot Tamales intensity), some slight chocolate notes, and then ethanol reverberation. I’d be interested to try once it’s oxidized a bit.

Vanilla cream and red fruit are dominant, I get some oak and malt on the midpalate, and the finish is decently long with a little bit of an ethanol burn.

Solid Speyside scotch. It’s reminiscent of the classic Doublewood, but a bit more musty. The big notes I get are malt, must and red fruit. Very easy to drink and more rich than one would expect from an 80 proof offering.