Compass Box No Name No. 2 Review

Hi everyone,

Thought some people might appreciate my thoughts on this whisky quickly as it has just come out here in the UK.

I was a big fan of the last No Name from Compass Box but that one had a parcel of Ardbeg, whereas this is mainly Coal Ila with some Talisker attached.

 

Compass Box No Name No. 2 48.9%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Clean smoke, pure lemon, soft soot and charred wood, creamy vanilla, maritime with wet ropes and sails, sea salt crust, little bit of a muted nose.

Taste: Soft, light smoke, chewy oils, then more powerful with smoke and black pepper, ginger and chilli, big salty hit, lemon juice. Softer, more silky and Campbeltown-esque as it opens up.

Finish: Long length. More lemon, more salt, a little oak at the end. Not particularly complex but good.

Lacking the complexity and balance of no1, nice nose, bit too spicy on the taste. I think the Coal Ila comes through very clearly on this one and maybe the spiciness from the Talisker but this was meant to be more complex than No Name 1 (which I loved the purity of) and I didn’t find that it was. Oh, and its £10 more expensive.

76/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #765

Whisky Review #910

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box Juveniles Review

Hi everyone,

I’m a pretty lucky guy in many, many ways.

One of those being that I normally get to taste the Compass Box releases quite early if I am so inclined. I dimly remembered some talk about this one and saw it pop up recently at a festival I was at.

The bottle is cool. Nice white wax on the top and a bell underneath, because we love a little bit of a joker under the surface. But what about the whisky?

Well, with a little bit of research I found the recipe and, amazingly, its only 30% Clynelish!

34% Strathmill (Hogshead)

34% Balmenach (Hogshead)

30% Clynelish (20% Recharred barrel, 10% refill Sherry)

2% Glendullan (1st fill Sherry)

Compass Box Juveniles 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Light and creamy, vanilla and white chocolate, some malt backing it up, lemon peel and icing sugar. Silky soft nose.

Taste: Malt first, more powerful than the nose let on, then creamy white chocolate, ethereal oils and leather then into the finish. The oak seems a little out of place though.

Finish: Medium length. Oily. Red apple, silky and soft but a tad dry.

2018 release. Young but good. Mainly about the mouthfeel and balance as the actual flavour is pretty average.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #695

Whisky Network Review #829

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box The Spaniard & Flaming Heart 6th Ed. Reviews

Hi everyone,

I’ve got two newish CB’s today. Always a fan of the more expensive versions and generally their outlook and experimentation.

I was lucky enough to try the new version of Flaming Heart at the Whisky Exchange Show recently and just tried The Spaniard yesterday, so thought I’d put up my notes together.

The 5th edition of Flaming Heart is one of my favourite Compass Box’s and I just love the packaging. Might be one of my favourite packagings on any Scotch actually. Not too overblown, lovely shaded bottle. So I was very curious to see how this new version stacks up.

Compass Box The Spaniard 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Really fruity, sweet gummy bears, wax, malt, spice, creamy biscuit, some milk chocolate and heather, quite a complex one actually. A more gristy malt develops.

Taste: Very soft, lacking a touch of power just as it begins, creamy, better mouthfeel as it goes on, malt, more spicy then with nice ginger and black pepper, tingling.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Creamy again with some spice.

48% Spanish wine casks. Quite an average one. Quite a good nose with the fruitiness working well but on the palate you get nice spices but not a huge amount more. This one isn’t too expensive though to be fair.

73/100

 

Compass Box Flaming Heart 6th Ed. 48.9%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: More fruity than I remember the last one being with lots of fresh apple notes, red and green apple, juicy pear, waxy and delicate, light creamy smoke behind, lemon candy.

Taste: Super soft and balanced arrival, creamy then more malty with chocolate then bigger mineral and salty peat, waxy and Brora-like.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Waxy and seashells, Brora. Some spice and oak too.

Glaser's mission to recreate Brora it seems. Fantastic of course, but not the equal of the 5th edition I think. I love the coastal notes here but the last I remember being more complex and kept developing.

83/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #678-#679

Whisky Network Reviews #812-#813

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box Delilah XXV Review

Hi everyone,

Allow me to be lazy on this one because it’s a CB release and that means percentage proportions of what’s in it:

29% Original Delilah recipe: Of which 48% older Cameronbridge, 40% older Teaninich & 12% Glen Elgin aged for an additional five years after the first Delilah release

10.5% More Cameronbridge from 1st fill Bourbon

10.5% Miltonduff from 1st fill Bourbon

20% Teaninich from 1st fill Sherry

15% Mystery Malt from town of Aberlour (Glenfarclas perhaps?) from 1st fill Sherry

15% Linkwood from 1st fill Sherry

This was released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Delilah punk rock whisky bar and I tasted it at the Stoke whisky festival earlier this year.

 

Compass Box Delilah XXV 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Malt hits first, wild strawberry, biscuit, very creamy, orange citrus, creamy vanilla, the grain comes out more with time.

Taste: Strawberry hit, very creamy, malt, biscuit, some heather and chocolate, some spice and oak, gingerbread, vanilla, a little grain whisky into the finish.

Finish: Medium length. More of the same. Orange, chocolate, heather and lots of malt.

A nice one from CB, middle of the road really. No peat, no Clynelish, just a pleasing whisky for all. I’ve said it before but I’m a big sucker for strawberry in whisky and this is no different. Good stuff.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #657

Whisky Network Review #790

Network Average: 75.0

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box The Muse Review

Hi everyone,

With the release of Jane Walker and BrewDog’s Pink IPA causing a bit of stir in the drinks world recently, initiating many a debate, now comes Compass Box’s attempt at jumping on the bandwagon celebrating Women in the industry without accidently insulting them and looking plain ridiculous.

To be fair, they seem to have done a slightly better job and are just generally more likable than the fat cats over at Diageo. Not to mention there’s some genuinely different and great whisky in the bottle.

So this a special edition of Hedonism blended grain, based off an old butt they found that contained some cool but unkownish grain whiskies, nicknamed the ‘Muse’ cask. They blended it with some other grains to make up this special edition, celebrating International Women’s Day and that there are more women working at Compass Box than men.

The price? Eh, maybe don’t worry about it…

 

Compass Box Hedonism ‘The Muse’ 53.3%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Beautifully tropical, the old Invergordon really shines, integrated is the name of the game here, complex, dried coconut and vanilla, worn leather. Patches of clean ethanol over time.

Taste: Perfect arrival, beautiful fruit, oak then comes in with some ginger snap spice, drier, still fresh though with orange and leather, so soft and delicate.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Dried coconut and vanilla, spice box, a bit less complex here with the ginger taking over.

Very old grain whisky (around 39 years I heard) based on the 'muse' cask. Initially I gave this 88 and was hugely impressed by what the grain whisky has gained but after a bit of time the ethanol on the nose starts poking out. Steep price of course (tentacle crowns are expensive after all!), but the best grain I’ve tried by a long, long way.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #594

Whisky Network Review #704

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box Double Single & TINALW Reviews

Hi everyone,

Two more Compass Box’s today.

The first is a cool little whisky I’ve heard about but never really seen in the UK. It’s the Double Single, which means that it is a combination of one single malt and one single grain. This technically qualifies it to be a blended whisky, but it’s an interesting angle.

And then, the one I’ve been meaning to try for ages. TINALW. Which is another nonsensical name based on the art/whisky thing. Cool designs on both though. Love the CB packaging, even if the whiskies don’t always match the (high) expectations.

Compass Box Double Single 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Really very good. Lovely ripe apple, some spice, some oak, light and ethereal, oily, something elusive that keeps you looking. Green apple, orange and white chocolate.

Taste: Red apple, oily, slightly waxy, nice level of oak, lightly peppery, chilli infused olive oil.

Finish: Medium length. Lightly peppery, black pepper.

So this is 72% Glen Elgin from recharred Hogsheads and 28% Girvan from recharred Bourbon barrels. Lovely but lacks complexity on the palate. This stuff is expensive though, expect to pay £150.

79/100

Compass Box This is Not a Luxury Whisky 53.1%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Complex, funky and floral. Fresh, fig, ripe cherry, pollen, rose petal, geranium, raspberry.

Water: Lighter and more ethereal.

Taste: Rich and intense. Ripe or slightly under ripe cherry, building oak, some spice, red apple, ginger and white pepper, green apple and wax, some salt.

Water: More balance and more cherry.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Chewy, more sour cherry, red apple and oak.

79% Sherry butt Glen Ord, 10.1% Strathclyde, 6.9% Girvan and 4% Caol Ila. A bit better with water, but I ended up being a bit disappointed with this. Especially with price factored in, I was expecting more (something I get a lot with CB).

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #523-#524

Whisky Network Reviews #616-#617

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box Phenomenology Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

From the guy who brought you No Name, I now present Phenomenonenology. Another new one from CB that will have you puzzling over what the hell is going on in your life.

They said that so many people got so many different things from this that they want to leave the tasting notes and components (List here) out of it for the moment. Does that check out? CB have always claimed to be the champions of transparency and truth but here they are keeping secrets...

Anyway, how's it taste before we pick up our pitchforks.

Compass Box Phenomenology 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: A light and fruity one, Clynelish waxy, red apple, subtle spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, beeswax, ceder, expensive wood, wood polish.

Taste: Soft arrival, red apple, waxy, toffee apples, dried apples, lovely development, a little salt. The dried apple note in particular is really very nice, not really had that before.

Finish: Long length. Nutmeg and cinnamon spices come through with more red apple.

Another great one. I'd bet a lot of money on there being older Clynelish in here. Or just a lot of Clynelish in general.

83/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #451

Whisky Network Review #514

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box No Name Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Today I've got a whisky you probably didn't know exists. Perhaps it doesn't.

They've called it No Name, which is ironic. Or perhaps it isn't. I mean, is No Name the name of the whisky or does the whisky have no name?

Maybe this whisky doesn't exist at all, or perhaps there's going to be 15,000 bottles of it at around £100/€134.

They tell us that 75.5% comes from Pier road, Islay (google maps it), from a re-charred American standard barrel. 10.6% from Port Askaig, Islay (again, maps), from a refill American standard barrel. 13.4% from Brora on the mainland (that should be an easy one), from a recharred hogshead, and 0.5% is CB's highland malt blend from a heavy toast, French oak hybrid cask. A lot of info there. More puzzles, more questions.

Perhaps we'll find the answers to the questions, perhaps in a few weeks. Then again, maybe we'll never know.

The packaging is amazing, although they've forgone a box for a display case, which I don't like so much.

Dark.

Brooding.

Mysterious.

This is... (Whisper it) No Name...

(mysterious whistling wind noises)

Compass Box No Name 48.9%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Fantastic meld of old smoke, lime juice (which gives the pier rd, Islay distillery away immediately, even if they hadn't said Pier rd) and amazing sharp grapefruit. Fantastic balance and complexity.

Taste: Sharp amazing citrus, lime and grapefruit, oils glide across the palate. Incredible complexity. Flawless balance. Textbook, really.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Creamy, not as amazing as the taste, but still great of course. Drier with this sooty note.

What a whisky. From my experience, it tastes like that Peir rd distillery is from 1991. I've had a few from the 90's, and the only one with that grapefruit note was 1991. That would be amazing for the price, so I doubt it but anything is possible. Anyway, this is an immediate buy and if I'd have to recommend one whisky you pick up this year so far, it's this. By quite a way.

88/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #450

Whisky Network Review #513

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?