It’s that special time again. Time for John Glaser and the guys at Compass Box Whisky to release another edition of Flaming Heart. This is their semi-annual, heavily peated blend meant to appease the “peat-heads” of the scotch world. It’s been 3 years since the last release, though- maybe John and the gang has been getting stretched too thin with all the bespoke bottlings. Cut that out, lol. Anyway, this is the 6th Edition and they decided to add another layer to this blend by supplementing the blend with some sherried whisky. Why? I don’t have a clue- I just know the price has risen on this one by $20-25 and I don’t really like that. But, we’ll leave that gripe until the end. This one is pale yellow in the Glencairn and makes some watery legs and tiny drops on the rim. It’s bottled at 48.9% and, like all CBW blends, has no added color and isn’t chill filtered. The nose is ashtray smoke and fresh ground peppercorn up front- so strong I actually recoiled a bit when I first went in. There’s tar and alcohol steadily present and I got a bit of sweet vanilla over time- a lot of time, actually: 40 minutes or so. It took a long time for the fire to burn itself down. I’m not complaining, however, just documenting it. The palate brings more abrasive smoke and BBQ’d rubber (if that makes sense). The mouthcoat is still buttery with the faintest of sweetness finally bleeding through all the smoke and peat. Dried raisins is about all of the sherry influence I get despite there being almost 30% of the blend being sourced from sherry casked Deanston. The 40% from Caol Ila and 8% from the blended, French Oak casks are carrying the load here. As they should- this is meant to be a fireball of smoke and heat. It still predominately is, thankfully. The finish is long and smoky with more ashtray and burnt leather. It’s hot and dry and everything you love about true peat monsters (pun intended). Overall, these are still in my wheelhouse. The sherry influence escaped me here but I’m actually happy about that- well, except for the increase in price. I had to pay $130 for this bottle and I feel like that’s $30 too much. I miss my old $100 Flaming Hearts, I really do. I’ll also gladly forego the added sherry next time, thank you. But realistically, this is still a fantastic dram if you like your peat. 4.25 stars. Cheers.