Compass Box Great King St Artist's Blend The Unholy Triumvirate Single Marrying Cask #31

Somewhere in Nashville Tennessee April 2022

그레이트킹스트리트 아티스트 블렌드 40% 완벽하게 구운 사과 향 맛과 피니쉬는 다소 아쉬움

""So, thanks to @Richard-ModernDrinking I am able to try a few more variations of the Compass Box Great King St Artist’s Blend Single Marrying Cask. This is Artist’s Blend refilled back into some of the casks used to make the original blend and aged for another year, then bottled at near cask strength. This particular cask (No 31) was bottled at 49% ABV and offers a deeper reflection of what the Artist’s Blend can be if left alone a little longer. So, this is the fourth different batch I’ve been able to try. The other 3 were a little more fruit forward than this bottle. This one had some nice florals and heavy oak notes. The fruit took a back seat here. The palate was peppery with some zip in the form of ginger root. Spicy and oaky with just light hints of orchard fruit. The finish is medium, but slightly hot. The ginger and pepper really combine with the elevated ABV and deliver a hotter experience. I think this one deviates from the standard Artist’s Blend more than the others I’ve had- and not necessarily in a good way. I want the Artist Blend to be easy sippin’ and highly crushable and this one kind of wasn’t. I wouldn’t lower my score below 3 stars because I think they all still ride the middle of the road in terms of flavor profile and drinkability. This one just wasn’t my favorite. Cheers

We men are pigs. Just plain pigs. You know, it’s like we have a perfectly good woman at home, who works her butt off with the family and job, and balances it all....but, yet, here we are, minds swaying over to other women (or men), thoughts going awry and wondering the “what if’s”. It’s in our DNA. I’m sure it’s in the Y chromosome. So...it’s the same thing with whiksey, isn’t it? You’d be perfectly happy at home with the stalwarts such as Ardbeg 10, Lag 16, and the Compass Box Great King St duos. Yet, here we are. Here we are getting all sorts of variety and spice into our lives, straying away from the stalwarts. So, that brings me to this beauty. Pears, orchard fruits, more complexity and body than the standard CB Great King St. A bit more depth, a more austere backbone. Not sure what the price is on this, but if it’s the same as the standard, this is the no-brainer. If more than the standard GKS, then it’s all a matter of how much of a fanboy are you of CB. Thanks to my buddy from the other side of NJ @Richard-ModernDrinking for this!

The Unholy Triumvirate is a series of four different finishes of Compass Box’s Great King St Artist’s Blend created for a trio of stores in Massachusetts. Each version was produced by putting the regular blend into a cask that previously held another whisky and leaving it there for a year of secondary maturation. These single marrying casks, to use the Compass Box terminology, each produced between 240 and 318 bottles at a punchy ABV of 49%. That compares to 43% for the regular blend, so they should stand out for their extra kick of alcohol as well as their secondary maturation flavors. Despite their limited nature, these bottles hadn’t exactly flown off the shelves in the store I found them in, and they were marked down from $50 to $40 each. At that price, it was easy to make a case for buying a set, if only to save you fine people the trouble of doing so. I didn’t have a bottle of the regular blend on hand to do a level set when tasting these over a couple of nights, but it’s a lovely whisky that I rated four stars a couple of years ago for its easy-drinking qualities and light summery flavors. The marrying casks for the most part taste bolder and more suited to a different season or occasion. I enjoyed them all, but if there was one that I thought was worth buying instead of or in addition to the regular blend, it was cask #31. This was finished in a cask that previously held a Highland malt and the wood has added some delicious harmonies to the original spirit. There’s malt and ginger tea on the nose, while the bready flavors in the mouth bring to mind sourdough with a touch of salt. It feels full and robust on the tongue, feisty even. The aftertaste wraps up the malty theme with a round of buttered toast. I’ll post brief notes for the other three on their respective pages. I rate them three stars a piece and while they’re not as special as this cask they are all well worth sampling if you come across them.