Compass Box Spice Tree

Quite a unique blended malt! Nosing is so pretty, sweet, vanilla, spice, quite prominent. Very ripe apple note underneath, almost like stewed apple. A little bit of tart and maltiness. Taste is sweet and a bit tart. Fragrance follows the taste and green grass freshness and peach? Swallowing is quite spicy and sweet and again it’s fragrant going down. Quite a unique experience.

Green Apple

It’s 2020. It’s December. Let’s shut this year down with a brand new whiskey (or whisky) every day. It’s my own personal whiskey advent calendar. +6! Dec. 20, 2020 Compass Box round 2! Okay, this may be my favorite nose on a scotch to date. There’s apple, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla. This smells like a delicious desert, and to be frank: I thought only bourbons could pull off a nose like that. Body carries that tart green apple. It is so good. There’s vanilla, honey. Maple syrup. But that apple wins the show for me. Finish is where that cinnamon comes back. It’s a lingering buzz, and though I don’t really get any other flavors, the cinnamon is well executed. I finished my sample after after letting my palate rest, and when I first returned, it tasted like a scotch. Over time, the flavor density builds up, and after 2-3 sips, if you were to put this in a lineup with bourbons, I wouldn’t blink. There is a mild grain note on the nose that betrays it’s scotch heritage, but the flavor density and specific profiles achieved are something that (10 minutes ago) I would’ve sworn a scotch simply can’t do. I’ve been an intolerable bourbon snob for so long. I don’t know what to believe. So @Jan-Case kind of warned me this was coming. I liked the Spaniard. I freaking love this. Looking forward to my final Compass Box tomorrow! ‘Tis the season. I’m day-to-day on my whiskey selection, so if you’re reading this and there’s something readily available out there you’d like me to enjoy/suffer through this holiday season, leave it in the comments. Merry whiskey to all, and to all a beer flight!