Compass Box Delilah's XXV

Interesting assertive blend

One of the more well balanced Compass Box - grain forward.

Smooth with lots of flavor

Nose: Malt, sherry, roasted nuts, dried fruit, cream Palate: Sherried, spice (clove & ginger), chocolate praline Finish: Long finish. Fruit heavy, dried and fresh fruit - apple, apricot, pear, plum. Pastry and cream. Sour apple on the aftertaste. 1 of 8,520 bottles This is a lovely sherried dram! Fruity and malty, with apple pie and pastry. This has a lovely, mouth coating creamy and oily mouthfeel. Deep fried apple pie!

Sherry on first nose, oak on the second. Nice balanced dram.

There are some Compass Box special limited editions, made exclusively for very prestigious bars, specially U.S. whisky bars, like Chicago's Delilah's. Delilah's is actually a punk rock whisky bar, and Compass Box have made 2 special bottles for them; the first one was released for their 20th Anniversary, and this second one, for the 25th. As always, CB has been clear about the exact recipe they used, and for this 25th Anniversary release, they used: A Refill Hogshead that contained the original 20th anniversary blend; a First Filled American Cask full of Grain Whisky from Cameronbridge; some whisky malt From Miltonduff; a parcel of Teaninich single malt; Malt Whisky from Linkwood and malt whisky "from a town near Aberlour". Bottled at 40%abv, tawny color. On the nose, it is all about caramelized apples from a theme park. Red apples, it feels exactly as an Aberlour 12yo. On the palate, i got a nice vanilla cream from the grain whisky; Pistachio and Vanilla ice cream. Rum and raisins. Aftertaste is very nice, but not complex at all. A sulphuric note, that quickly becomes chocolate and then good hints of coconut. Overall, i believe this has too many whiskies but it is excessively simple and not complex in any way. Having said that, the tasting and aroma notes are very clean; i don't feel the creaminess that i often get from Compass Box, but i believe that comes from Glen Elgin malts that they tend to use a lot. The sherriness is not really present, but the vanilla bourbon notes are really well delivered. A good blended scotch, with an incredible looking bottle, my score for it is 83 over 100.