Tastes

Not really your every day Whisky, but I wanted to see what Compass Box is able to do "at their worst". If this is their worst, hell, I need to try some other stuff. On the nose, you get - big surprise - bitter orange notes, together with cloves and some pepper. The taste starts rather bitter too, then the orange and a bit of honey kick in. Not very sweet, that surprised me. Unlike most orange flavored liquor you still get a taste of the single malt in there. Barley notes, vanilla. Typical highland. Granted, all a bit muted behind the orange, but it is there. Finish is spicy, orange, but rather short. Would I use this as every day dram? No. But it's an alternative to stuff like Cointreau and Grand Manier, when the orangy bug bites me again. Plus, not that expensive.

What do you do when having an existential crisis at 1 am and not being able to sleep? You replan your entire appartment, and drink some irish whisky. The last Teeling I had was amazing, and this is not far off too. On the nose I get honey, peaches, some apricot, hints of citrus hovering above that, and some kind of sour note that reminds me of fresh sourdough bread with plum jam. On the taste is has the typical irish barley notes with some vanilla, on top of some cooked dark fruits with spices in them and some honey hazelnut crunch scattered over it. Very lovely. That's a whisky that invites you to dream and let your mind wander. The spicy sweet aftertaste takes a while to fade and slowly leads you back into the land of the living. Good stuff.

Dark Origins. Cool name. Good looking bottle. And fortunatly, good whisky. On the nose I get plums, some dark honey notes, hint of citrus and a bit of stale pipe tobacco. Plums continue on the palate, together with more vanilla, dark chocolate and the typical barley. Light, fruity sweetness in the background. Spicy, sweet and plummy aftertaste. Good stuff.

Well, Christmas is over, and so is my advent calendar. Lucky for me, I still got 40 3cl samples I ordered for christmas. I enjoyed tasting new stuff each evening, turned into a ritual to relax. Also, I share them with my dad, so family bonding is also part of the equation. Might as well continue the daily dram. Tonight I picked one pretty much at random. Turned out to be the Macallan Fine Oak 12. Macallan is a name that is in my opinion overhyped and overpriced. Still damn good whisky though. On the nose I don't get much. Mostly the malty barley notes, some vanilla and citrus. The taste is suprisingly aggressive. Very, very bitter up front for about 2-3 seconds, and then it melts into sweet barley, some light vanilla cream, bit of citrus and honey. The sweet honeyed barley is what stays with you for quite a while. I normally don't like bitter stuff, but that melting into sweetness is actually really nice. It's like eating really dark chocolate filled with sweet mousse. Same feeling. Bitter, melting, sweet. Enjoyable whisky for a relaxing evening, but not the right one if you want to explore. Bit too expensive, but hey, that's Macallan in a nutshell.

Day 24. The finale of the calendar. On one hand, I'm a bit disappointed that they put a "simple bourbon" in the 24th spot. On the other hand, it fits so damn well. Maker's Mark - Birth of Christ...just saying. On the nose you get some vanilla, sweet corn and interestlingly, some apples. I don't get apples very often in bourbon, at least not that intense. Taste has the usualy corn and vanilla notes, some oak spices, cinnamon, and - my personal favorite - apples glazed in brown sugar. All while not being too sweet alltogether. Very interesting Bourbon, I can see why people like this. It ends with some hints of spicy vanilla and leaves you happy. On that note, Merry Christmas to all you awesome people on this website. Learned a lot from you and I'm looking forward to many more enjoyable reviews. Cheers.

Day 22. Finally, the second of the Roses. And it's also good. I'm reviewing this a bit late today(2am), because I had a couple of homemade white russians before and they sent me napping. But we all know, middle of the night whisky is best whisky. On the nose there is a strong vanilla-cherry component, together with some chocolate, oak spicyness and grilled peaches. The palate presents itself a bit on the sweeter side, with some dark chocolate and honey, the typical bourbon vanilla and cherry notes, some oak spiced to pep it up a bit and brown roasted sugar sprinkled over all of that. The finish is semi long, with oaky sweetness being the dominant note. All in all, if you're looking for a great bourbon, can't go wrong with either this or the small batch. Botch are amazing, on not even that exensive (27 for the small batch, 33 for the single barrel). Cheers.

Day 21. The last scotch. Now I only got 1 rum and 2 bourbons left. Today, we got one of the "unspeakable" scotches. Disclaimer, not 100% certain if it is the 2016 since there is no year on the bottle, but process of elimination tells me it is. On the nose you get some nice smoke, togehter with malty balrey notes, some citrus and peppery honey. Somewhat reminds me of the Laphroaig 10 but...not quite as good. The taste is light honey with smoked peacehs, some pepper and briney, salty notes all over it. A little bit on the thin side for my taste...almost as if you put half a shot of water in there. Not fun. The notes are all enjoyable, but feel watered down for some reason. The aftertaste is salty smoke and and doesn't stay for very long. Not a bad scotch by anyones definition, just not really my taste.

Day 20. For once we got some classic scotch. Not the revered 18, but the 15. It's interesting what a few years more can to to whisky. It does have a classic HP baseline, but there are also some notes in there that don't remind me of HP at all. Let's start with the nose. There is a dominant note of smoky seaair with a nice dose of salt, some light honey and present notes of pear. Fairly standard in a good way so far, the taste is what threw me off at first. Spicy smoke, then an overwhelming salty barley note, some honey, the pears are now mixed with some apples and covered with spices and brine. Somewhat aggressive, salty, sour, not too hot, and leaves an amazing barley smoke aftertaste. I like this stuff. Looking forward to try the 18. Curious what 3 more years could do.