Tastes

I guess I'll review it under this. Given there are sometimes 2 batches a year this method being used here isn't gonna work well. 2022/5/25 Nose - stately and yet youthful and off. A combination of aspartame, vanilla, caramel, and a strangely high oak and yet...funk note. This is classic wild turkey! Turned up to 13? I get red fruits, cinnamon, hazelnut, and it's lovely. Taste - While the nose, I may have focused on funk too much, the taste is WAY more on the funk. Old whisky notes with over the top oak and rich funky again aspartame and more custardy funk. I love this stuff. It's a wonderfully old and yet not old and stately whiskey! Turkey has found a way to do old without refinement but with some real power and force. I just compared this to knob 12 CS and the ECBP C923, it doesn't really hold up. But as it's own thing, I love it. 2.75. Great CS fun stuff, but nothing exceptional.

I kept passing on this one because my local shop incorrectly priced it at over 200. But they finally brought it to 144 which seemed fair and of course...all but ONE box somehow got seriously damaged! So I grabbed the pristine box and pulled the trigger. Nose - hot damn, this is a mix of orchard and tropical fruits. Clean, with a hint of wax, and light spice notes. But overall this is one of the most fruity and enticing noses I've experienced from Compass Box. Honestly, it's outstanding! Taste - It arrives with these lovely honey and tropical fruit notes, turns to light spice and rich breakfast sweet pastry notes, then turns up the spice to very european type sherry oak notes before leaving a long lingering sweetness. Oddly with so many references to sherry, the color is pretty nice gold but hardly the red hues you'd expect. That said I get plenty of sherry but perfectly blended with nice classic compass box toasted oak notes. They really gave this whisky the richness and the fullness of a very old whisky while turning some youthful spice into a feature and not a flaw. 3.75 - one of my favorite Compass Box Bottles in a number of years. This is a whisky that punches well above it's weight.

2021 relase Too lazy to add or look further. Nose - Sour white wine with smoke notes, sugar cookies and so so inviting. Love how the smoke builds as it's in the glass. Taste - This is such a difference from the normal longrow 18 with this white wine note. Sweet, rich, mouth feel is great for a longrow. I love this one. Salty brine. I love it. Giving this a 4.0 one of my favorite longrows yet.

Oh my! This is special! OK so I tried this over the weekend at the bourbon on the banks event and instantly took one home! Nose - that old whisky varnish is the first thing that jumps out! Woot! Rich caramel and vanilla with wheat notes, soil, dirty, think the cleanest turkey funk ever. Rich oak as well, god this is rich and yet that wheated whisky is adding this clean funky and sweet n ote. Taste - At first it's just sweet kentucky bourbon. Very good, but lacking. A second sip however lingers forever. The age jumps out of the glass and once again that tiny bit of 6 year wheated bourbon is doing magic to these older whiskies. This is different from the 1-4 which were all great, 1 being the only one I didn't get...never saw one to buy, but had it. This is richer and longer lasting while not being as aged and perhaps "classic high end bourbon". Instead it's still got a lot of great notes of high end bourbon, but it's got it's own truly imo unique character. 3.5 I think. I'm buying another I think. This is just too unique a bourbon to not get a back up.

Really, no 12 year? Anyway...another 20 cl review. Nose - classic lag 12...and then the finish is...kinda vegetal. I feel there's little need to dive into what a lag 12 smells like here. But that vegetal note is weird. There might also be a bit more sweetness here. It's oddly familiar and not messed up with the tequila finish and yet...lag 12 has proven even the slightest variation can turn it from a master piece to a disaster. Taste - yeah it's "smooth" and in that I mean unlike the 2019 where the astringency went WILD, this is very much like Lion's Fire in that it's creamy and easy to drink. It's sweeter than expected as well. The vanillas and the "lagavaulin" version of iodine is held back. The smoke is also less. That said the peat and the SMOKE might be higher here. The finish is way longer than the 2017 which I've got poured as a control. There's a bit of bitterness that's unwanted here. And I think despite a great viscous mouth feel, better than the 2017. And despite the longer and fuller finish. That note is just off putting. Every time I go back to the 2017, it's like a breath of fresh air. It's so much just...better. Forget flavors it's about the way the whisky comes together. There's this level of balance and structure and the quality of maturation of the distillate that sometimes gets lost in our never ending tasting notes. That's not what lag 12 is about. It not about tasting notes. I think I underrated the lag 12 when I scored the 2017 and 2018. So I think I'll give this a 2.75, but I think it's a step behind both by a bit. I gave the 2020 a 3.75 which I think is maybe a bit high but very fair because it was so good. Any conclusion here as this one deserves it! This is a very nice version of lag 12 that isn't at ALL nearly as off profile and weird as I expected. It's got some off notes and it's different, but the 2019 was more off and weird than this is. If prices weren't getting out of control, this would honestly be one I'd get to remember down the road. But they have...so pass.

Another 20 cl and this one I've had a bit of lol. Nose - rich oak really stands out on this one. There's this weird play of dare I say white chocolate with oak over a rich range of fruits that are struggling for their life to get out. Perhaps a lemon loaf is back there, certainly a lightly citrus note that's tamed by first fill bourbon vanilla notes. Simple, rich, and well constructed. Taste - This is just a good malt and a good set of casks. If you were to introduce a malt in it's singular form to the market, there's really no better presentation than this. It's clear Diageo is really proud of this distillery's work so far. Now this isn't outstanding or anything special. It's however such a nice malt that can very easily be blended into something as it can be finished or matured in more interesting casks to complement the malt. Slightly citrus up from, then bringing in oak tannins, vanilla. It's simple, so simple. But it's as I noted on the nose, insanely well constructed. The mix of citrus with the white chocolate and vanilla and impressively nice oak notes here are great. I'm going to give this a geek bonus and bump it to 3.0. I could go 3.25. It's not amazing, but if you like whisky you'll like this.

Another 20 cl purchase of this year's set. Nose - I get this cheese like note and sit with me a second here. I get this often on younger whiskies and I kinda come up with more articulate notes of oak and sweet notes. But really, I always kinda think cheese. Once it opens a bit we do get bright fruits. I know it's a bit mental but the white wine notes with the somewhat orchard fruits of the base malt are pretty noticeable here. Buttered toast comes in. Light toasted oak, not nearly the spice I'd expect with french oak. Taste - This is 100% the alcohol version of some kind of marmalade spread. Lets just call it generic white and orange spread number 9. The french oak is more noticeable here, but in the context of this jam note...I'm thinking burnt toast despite it being pretty clearly spicy french oak. It's as good as you'd expect from a 14 year well finished whisky and as kind simple as you expect from Singleton. Honestly, it's good stuff. I'll give it a 2.75. I won't be buying a full bottle.

So after a series of 8 year releases, they go NAS? Seriously, how damn young is this! OK so lets ignore that Nose - Sea breeze salt brings some light peat and sweetness (knowing it's port finished it's port). I honestly really enjoy this simple yet pretty well done nose. It's talisker through and through with some nice sweet notes. It isn't old it isn't special but it's nice. Taste - how is this so good? I got young whisky on the past two 8's. I didn't love the 11. This is freaking good. It's obviously not old, but I don't get ANY youth notes here. Meanwhile I get this aggressive and assertive whisky. Big peat big salt big finish. And nice sweet port notes. It's a touch hot. It's kinda simple. But that's to be expected. Seriously guys, this is a fun. I'm not sure what the price is. I got this as a 20 cl for 30 something...but if a full bottle is under 100 or at 100, I think this is a clear buy. 3.5 out of 5. Damn this is good.

This gets a lot of hype so lets put it to the test. Sample review. Nose - Rich smoke giving me a mix of smoked wood and some burned plastic. It actually lightly reminds me of being a kid and my room started to smell of smoke. My dad was out of town and my mom called the fire department worried about some electrical fire. The 6'7 fire fighter quickly found the problem, a lego that somehow was on top of my lamp that had melted. As I dig deeper the sweetness really comes out. Inspiring more of a laphroig happy place. A bit medicinal, a bit of doctors office and a heck of a lot of yummy smoked meats and good light fruits with caramel mint notes. Taste - A bit front loaded. It mixes oak, mint, and spice with the flavors really coming in strong on the front of the pallet and feeling short after. That said there's a nice finish here. I've mostly had this brand's CS LE's or IB bottling. This might be my first core bottle and it's far more Islay than what I'vd had before. i'm impressed with the flavor punch. I really like the wood smoke notes. I don't like the notes of plastic. The finish has room to improve. Good bit of peppered spice on the finish too, I think that's killing the finish for me. I feel this should be better but I'm not getting there. 2.25. It just should be better, there's something not coming together here. I'm leaving this open for me to come back and adjust. This is just a brand that seems like it should be good but always leaves me wanting.

Another sample review. Nose - Lightly oaked sour oil, light citrus, rich barely, light smoke. For a near clear whisky, it's shockingly oily. I can't believe how much oil I nose here. I get almost a lemon tea note on here. This is really right up my hazelburn 10 loving ally. It's simple, it's young, but it's well freaking done and it doesn't have off notes. Taste - Oh, I am really finding I like Ben Nevis. I recently got to try the 25 year from a while back and it checked all kinds of boxes. This is done it for me as well. Upfront it's light and just lightly sweet. Then some funk, earthy and somewhat new make notes come through. Finally it turns to this wonderful charcoal finish. Wow, it's lag 12 peat level intense with this charcoal note. I totally get why so many people chase after this malt. It does bring in a lot of new make so I'm going to just give this a 2.5. Good, noticeably above the average (mine is a 2.0 to save room for WOW bottles), but it has some wow factor you normally don't see until you get much older and more expensive bottles.