Jan-Case
Compass Box The Peat Monster (Classic Brown Label)
Blended Malt — Scotland
Reviewed
October 28, 2020 (edited April 29, 2021)
3rd and final sample of Compass Box blends.
On the nose a familiar iodine cold ash peat embedded in a melange of crispy white bread, sweet tangerines, bitter oranges / grapefruit, light apples, a salty note, a bid of lemon and vanilla. Not overly sweet and surprisingly fresh.
Checking the information sheet from CB the used distilleries are not a surprise: Caol Ila and Laphroaig mainly - all Bourbon cask matured only.
The palate is a bid weird in an interesting way at first but then settles nicely with wooden smoke, vanilla sweetness, a welcome smoothness and a really amazing Islay peat.
The finish is rewarding really. Sweet and peaty almost creamy and quite long with a bid of oak in the end.
For sure the best out of the three CBs I had (Spaniard and Spice Tree being the others). It is a nice Islay whisky expression not over-fabricated. When you are a fan of typical Islay peat this bottle is a nice addition to your collection for sure. I like it.
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Awesome background as always @cascode I can't compete :)
@Jan-Case Glaser had a background in the wine industry prior to his association with whisky. It developed in him a profound respect for cask quality, and the belief that in the great majority of cases the casks used for whisky maturation, regardless of type, are "bottom shelf" quality at best, and downright bad a lot of the time. His "finishing" regime is as much a fix for ho-hum maturation as it is an addition of intense characteristics. It's also one of the ways he "irons-out" the inconsistency of blend components and overcomes profile-drift from changing formulation. Look back at the formulations of different batchs of the core-line expressions over the last 15 years and some have changed radically, but the profiles are consistent (to a reasonable degree).
@Jan-Case Glaser had to get creative in order to legally be able to call Spice Tree a scotch because of how he aged it (he initially used staves, which isn't allowed).
@Jan-Case compass box has some great videos on their webpage where John Glaser discusses all the aspects of their production. Very informative. He recorded most of the videos in their barrel warehouse.
@WhiskeyLonghorn I didn’t kown they do their own cask maturation. I thought they buy what they can get and create a different but similar blend every year. Interesting though.
Nice review(s). I’ve had six or seven different Compass Box bottles now. Ounce for ounce the Glasgow blend is the best value followed by Spice Tree for my palate. If they took this one and let it age further in first fill sherry barrels for a while, they’d have a real “monster” of a hit on their hands.
Nice review JC. I see the benefit of say Glasgow combining sherry and peat but have my doubts about an all peat blend being able to hold up to a similarly priced single malt. That said I still want to try this as I have enjoyed every Compass offering Ive purchased
@Grumpious Alberta huh....You a Flames fan or Oilers. Calgary is my favorite team since they moved from Atlanta
I agree with you that this is one of their best expressions.. I’m hopeful that we will get a few bottles of the new Arcana here in Alberta soon!
Looking forward to one day sampling my mini of this too :)