Tonight’s Tipple #004 Compass Box “The Spaniard”. I paid around $70 US. Bottled at 43%, not chill-filtered, natural colour, and noted as “Bold, Fruity and Spicy”. As with all of the Compass Box offerings, there is a “Taste Map”, here: https://www.compassboxwhisky.com/whiskies/the-story-of-the-spaniard Turns out that the construction of this varies quite a lot from batch to batch, which is interesting in and of itself. They give the components for five different batches, and they are all different! I wish I had paid more attention, and I’d have kept some of this for comparison. ANYWAY PREAMBLE: After a year or thereabouts of buying whisky on the basis of things I knew and things I was interested in, I decided I’d like to explore blends, to see what was available outside the “official” releases. Thence as previously mentioned, to Compass Box and Douglass Laing. COLOUR: Quite light. Coppery bronze. No sign of green tones, no sign of red tones. Nothing remarkable. NOSE: Light, quite subtle. Mild toffee sweetness. Malt extract. Mocha? Creme caramel. Lychee? Honeydew melon? Toast & Butter. No peat. No smoke. There’s an underlying grassy note, too. Sulphurish? PALETTE: Very front-of-mouth. Dry at the edges of the tongue and inside of the cheeks. Mild tannins. Warm. Light. Long mild spiciness. Oak. Sherry-ish. Oloroso. There is a generic, quality-Speyside flavor, with a corresponding lack of individuality. There’s a creamy viscosity too, that appeals - like Springbank. CONCLUSION: Well, this was one that was much more interesting on the nose than on the palette. I would very likely buy this again, but would swither between this and “Scallywag” (which is richer) or “Naked Malt” (which is less subtle). Perhaps this is a dram for those with a more refined palette than mine ! What do YOU think? ScotShot out!

Posted by ScotShot at 2023-05-10 02:01:12 UTC