LouisianaLonghorn
Compass Box Oak Cross
Blended Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
March 2, 2019 (edited September 15, 2019)
For those of you playing along at home, I've been working my way through the Compass Box's core range of blended malt whiskys. My local liquor store was having its annual liquidation sale, and I picked this up for next to nothing. The price listed was the regular retail, but I got it for about $21. Bless you Texas liquor laws, and bless Compass Box whisky.
This is a much more subtle whisky than its burlier cousins, Spice Tree and Peat Monster. It takes time to get to know it. Maybe it's shy. Or maybe it's just trying to figure itself out, since it is a seamless blend of single malts aged separately in refill American oak casks and new French oak casks, then blended together. It's a similar process that CBW uses for Spice Tree, but with less casks and less toasting/charing of said casks.
At first sniff, I get vanilla, and quite a bit, but not an overbearing amount of oak (Duh...). You have to let this one sit on the palate a while, and when you do, you get more vanilla and oak, as well as a light, nondescript fruity taste, a creamy mouthfeel, and a warm, slow finish that lingers with more vanilla and oak (are you sensing a trend here?). I haven't tried this one with food yet, but I suspect that it won't hold up the same way some of the other CBW expressions might, but as an aperitif whisky, or even a desert whisky, sign me up! I wonder what it would taste like over vanilla ice cream...?
48.0
USD
per
Bottle
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Good review. I think this one was my least favorite CB so far... But a good whisky nonetheless.
@SolanaRoots it was... but in retrospect, it was too much like Ardbeg. So why not just get Ardbeg? The price didn’t warrant a purchase considering it was all pretty much Ardbeg
@PBMichiganWolverine That’s good to know! No Name was one of your faves too, wasn’t it?
@SolanaRoots that’s a good one, one of their best. I think the only one I liked better was Circus and 3.
@PBMichiganWolverine Yep, just saw Asyla on the shelf last week at $58. Interesting since it’s discontinued but I was more intrigued by the neighboring dusty box of Not a Luxury Whisky at $224
@WhiskeyLonghorn Asyla was probably their most “ summery” one, really light and delicate. You might still find it on shelves.
@SolanaRoots Hedonism isn’t cheep here either. It’s on the list for when I’m in a higher tax bracket.
@WhiskeyLonghorn Nice! Don’t forget the Great King Street bottles - the Artist’s Blend & the Glasgow blend. Both darn good. I think Hedonism is part of the core range but bumps up against $100 where I’m at
@SolanaRoots I think only one more. Asyla isn’ t part of their core range anymore and it was replaced last year by The Story of the Spaniard. Look for that review next month! Thanks for the comment.
Solid review! How many more bottles in the core range that you need to work through? Cheers