Compass Box Phenomenology

N: Sweet peach which mellows after the first taste and vanilla cream P: Peach carries into the front of the palate then into a raisin mid before kicking into an awesome baking spice. F: Oaky spice. Lingers for a good while with that deep woody oak.

I often say how Compass Box dissapoints me, and i have noticed that it is my fault for putting to much faith on every expression due to their great marketing and overall hype. When i had the "No Name" those paradigms changed and i said i loved it. No Name has a "sister bottle" (they were release kinda together) and it is this "Phenomenology", whose name comes from a phsycology school of thought, that it is all about how people experience different things on one same object. That is why they "held" the tasting notes on this one, for us to debate on what flavors and aromas we can find on this "Dissonant blend, form 72% Glenlossie 24.5% Tamdhu in bourbon cask, 2% Highland Park, 1% Talisker and 0.5% Caol Ila". This sounds nice! But, does it live to its expectations? Well ... lets see: Bottled at 46%abv, golden color. On the nose it is quite beautiful. Red apples, vanilla, feels like a GLENFARCLAS (this is how it felt, i didn't read anything about this whisky before tasting it so i threw this impression in my notes. There is no Glenfarclas in this hahaha.) Coca cola that lost its gas, pears, cantaloupe, tobacco, dry grass, a pineapple juice (this note was so clean and easy to find). Rancid vanilla. NO PEAT. On the palate is a little simple. Apples, Cinnamon, pepper, pineapple, vanilla. It is oily. I feel that Compass Box often prefers an easy-going palate, and maybe that is why it tends to lose points in my scorecard. Aftertaste is more of the same, apples and spices like cinnamon and clove. Overall this feels like your typical speysider. I couldn't find any peaty notes, the nearest ones were dry grass and tobacco. Well, i wanted to validate my notes on this, so i started watching some youtube reviews to see if everyone gets something different as Compass Box Claims. They all had something very similar to my notes (except the coca cola without gas, lol). Some of them find very little peat, which i didn't. I don't think this is a bad dram, i just find it too speysider and it fails to deliver the talisker and Highland Park notes, maybe the Caol Ila citrusness was there. My score for it, is a rough 80 over 100.

$13/oz at Hawthorne in Boston. Nose of honey and green apple. Bright and sweet smelling. Palate delivers essentially the same: berries and sweet apples clearly come through. Moderately complex. Medium mouthfeel and medium finish. Nice.

Solid bottle. Smoke and sherry and oak. Well balanced and very interesting. Great depth. Love this expression.

Amazing.

I was never going to buy this after their odd comments, but a friend sent me a sample and I had a bottle the next day. Nose - Salt, vanilla, peach, cream, and a touch of green apple. Taste - Soft alcohol, fruity, vanilla, and tonight I'm getting a fairly decent amount of toasted oak. I'm getting a bit of a mix between a white bread and a light pastry with vanilla icing on it. Then there's that touch of citrus jelly almost like a jelly filled doughnut way in the back. There's a touch of bitter from the oak on the end, perhaps a touch of tea. Finish - here those salty and savory notes come back in with a rich vanilla. Compass Box has had a few misses lately and their prices are certainly creeping up as the age of the spirit goes down, but this one really is one of their best from the last few years.