dhsilv2
Compass Box The Circle No. 1
Blended Malt — Scotland
Reviewed
August 19, 2019 (edited June 29, 2020)
The Circle - This one was a bit of an unknown and good surprise.
So lets get the details out there. Tamdhu 78.38% and it's between 15 and 19 years old. Then a sherry butt from Clynelish makes up 14.8%...aged...on the younger side of above. And then Highland Park, bourbon barrel, and a pretty common older age, 20+ years old. There you go compass box, I didn't share the ages! Oh and then younger highland malt makes up the last 1.5%.
Color is pretty light golden. It doesn't look older and it surprises me on the sherry butt in there. 46% perhaps lightening it down.
The nose has some nice barrel char surprisingly, light red fruit, vanilla, and dare I say some smoke?
Flavor - it's just nice. Apples, touch of oak, nice sweat malt, some vanillas, and yeah there's a light smoke. Creamy mouth feel though it won't take water (the cream is killed). The 46% is sadly about 1% too low for a decent amount of water for me to play with it. Water does bring out some bite from the citrus notes and normally I'd think there's spice there but really this is clean no spice.
Finish - oh yeah i get a wood and I swear smoke linger on the finish as the sweat flavors fade out. Not a long finish but it's on the long side of medium.
So the question is if this is 150 dollars good? I honestly at first taste loved it but felt it was a bit over priced. Having now gotten is down to the top of the label (the compass box gold part so not THAT much) I'm really starting to appreciate this one. This really is as they call it "sunshine", it's sweat, balanced, complex, but it lacks the really complex notes you'll get with more aggressive notes. At first I took this to be a "lesser" note, but I completely disagree with that now. They've created a perfect day time sipper to have with friends.
I'm not one to give more than a 3 score often. A 3 is a really high quality whisky, but this is priced right and just kills it. This would be a 4.5 from a lot of people.
150.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@PBMichiganWolverine given the ages and casks used, the price doesn't seem too out of line all be it yeah it's a touch expensive. Still we're talking, I'd feel better at 125 vs 150. Pretty minor.
Nice review and welcome to Distiller. I always enjoy reading new reviews and following people that take the time to go into lots of details. Cheers.
This sounds like a bit of a let down especially considering that asking price. Is CB now finally succumbed to marketing hype over flavor ?
@dhsilv2 That’s a lot of open bottles! You’ll find an appreciative audience as you work through them here. Welcome.
Thanks man - yeah I've wanted a place like this similar to beer advocate for a while. Since I've found it, times to review the open bottles I have. I should be caught up by the end of year.
Nice review. You’ve been busy here I see!