This hay-colored blend from Compass Box is an excellent choice for cocktails and while not as good as Compass Box Aslya neat, still an overall solid dram. The nose is pretty faint, with just a hint of apple and pear. The palate opens up though with notes of citrus, mainly lemon, peat and stone fruits. The finish is short but has little to no burn and some vanilla notes to close. Compass Box is positioning this blend to be the cocktail ingredient you reach for when a recipe calls for scotch. It may not have the peat notes of Johnnie Walker black, but it works better than most blends in nearly all cocktails. I'm not sure people will turn to it over the mainstays like Dewars, JW and Famous Grouse, but I believe it's just as good, if not better than those.