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.