Compass Box Menagerie

Apple, floral

Compass Box is one brand that always catches my attention. Their lovely labels and very particular blends usually makes me more jugdemental of their expressions. That is why i often say that i like their whiskies but only a few have surpassed my expectations. Having said that, this "Menagerie" blend, was fantastic. A "Menagerie" is the french word for "House of Beasts", which was the Predecessor of the Circus. The Menageries started in the early 1700s in french farms, where people paid to see the animals. Then, as time passed, the business grew, and more exotic animals were shown in mobile cages. Even the Versailles Palace had its own Menagerie of wild beasts. This whisky is a blended malt made from: 17.1% Deanston, 42.7% Mortlach, 16.7% a Custom Highland Blend; 18.1% Glen Elgin, and 5.4% Laphroaig. Bottled at 46%abv, it is suppossed to be a dram that holds many exotic beasts of flavors and aromas. On the nose, peaty and interesting. Mint, permanent marker and a lot of Herbal notes. Moss. The Pineapple is the key note here, it is very tropical. Wet grass. After a first sip, the aroma changed into toffee, mint and orange juice. On the palate, it is a lovely whisky. Vanilla and pineapple. A metallic note that resembles licking a penny. Gooseberries, it is very acid. Feels milky; sugar syrup. Aftertaste is the best part. Chocolate, Silicone, glue, pepper, sulphur and mint. Crazy good stuff. Overall, this one lived to its expectations. A peaty, yet tropical whisky. Fruity and sulphuric but very balanced and pleasant. They truly achieved a house of tamed beasts here. I loved it, fully recommended, my score for it is 93 over 100.

Another limited run (around 7,000 bottles) from the Compass Box masters. This one might be a little too smokey for my tastes based on the blending notes, but it is CB so it still has to be pretty good.... or so I hope.... Nose is a little smokey, but not over the top. I am getting some light honey almond notes as well underneath the peat. First sip lives up to the name as it is a bit wild. Smoke upfront in spades, but as that crescendos a sweetness emerges that is a bit unexpected. Almonds and maybe some stone fruitiness on the backend. A few sips in seem to mellow the peat a bit from the original impression. The finish is another twist as there is a light pepper burn mid pallette that just lingers like a London fog (I am sure Scotch purists are cursing me for a London reference in a blended Scotch review, but so be it). Overall, this is an interesting blend as the makers intended. Menagerie is as fitting a name as they could have come up with for this dram as there is quite a bit going on. Not sure I would grab this one again as it might be on the edge of my peat tolerance, but the suprising sweetness and intersting finish do bring something intriguing to the party. Enjoying this more than I thought I would to be honest. Price is a factor as with most CB bottles, but this is probably a solid pickup if you like mild peat offerings.

Another day another compass box. Nose - So right off the bat, I get compass box's sweet fruity malt profile. I know they change up everything always but they don't. They are really big fans of fruity with a hint of oak and it's here. I get some earthy and funky notes but they're subtle and easy to dismiss without knowing what's in this one. More time in the glass and sherry notes start to sneak out, softly and subtly. Vanilla cream and a light hint of pork to top things off. Taste - Pineapple pear citrus with waxy vanilla and dirty salty pork shoulder. Some earthy elements from peated scotch meets some meaty and savory elements with an overwhelmingly vanilla forward body but an opening of fresh citrus fruits. Overall a very nice and a bit more out there expression from compass box and I for one am happy to see that. I am however a bit disappointed they went younger and that they used so much of that highland malt. I'd have rather paid a few more bucks and gotten this one amped up a bit with some darker and older oaked casks. Instead it's this big unique whisky that's also kinda soft and a bit lacking. Packaging - well the box is boring as hell. The bottle art is pretty cool and it's got a GREAT heavy paper feel. Overall below average for compass box on the packaging but it's still nice. Score - wow this is a hard one. It's a really nice and really high quality level of complexity, but it's thin and watery and dull in some areas. It really isn't malt that should be 46%. 48-50 is really where this one was intended to be. It's seriously proofed down and that's not good. The age is not bad but you get some youth and some notes of older stuff. Bottom line it feels like they tried to lower the price with younger whisky vs using younger whisky to get a better whisky. OK so I'm in at a 2.5 which is a bit of a low score I admit. And at 128 this is not a value but it's not a bad one. The problem I keep coming to is that I think they could have made a 3.75 and between lower proof, using some crap highland filler, and not finding the old epic whisky to finish this, they left a great bottle on the table to push out a very ok one. If you like the notes they put out, buy it if you have money to blow. If you love compss box get it. If you don't like either that much, move on. There's nothing special here.