Compass Box: Great King St: Glasgow Blend (Scottish Blended Whisky: No Age: 43 % ABV)
Visual: Light grain to gold.
Viscosity: Quite slow, medium sized streaks.
Nose: Peat over sherry trifle. Vanilla toffee. Smoke. Honey drops. Pencil shavings. Cherries. Light menthol. Water numbs the aroma.
Body: Smooth, thick and warming. Honey. Dry beef slices. Sherry trifle. Vanilla toffee. Peat. Toffee apple. Smoke. Cherries. Water brings out trifle and lime and smoothes smoke notes.
Finish: Dry beef. Light charring. Menthol. Honey. Vanilla toffee. Water adds lime and takes away the slight alcohol feel. Malt chocolate.
Conclusion: Ok, blending has really shown what it can do with this one in its corner. I don’t think that without blending we would ever see such a fruity dessert like whisky with such a lovely peat weight.
Ok, in the past I have , occasionally, been a bit of a single malt snob and the shadow of that does still impact my thoughts – but this is lovely sweet peat juice.
The main body is an alcoholic cream trifle with masses of red fruit, the peat is beefy and robust. You might imagine that such a pairing would be obscene, but admit it, who hasn’t wanted to ditch a trifle onto a well cooked steak and then eat them both?
Oh. Just me huh. Now I’m embarrassed.
It is great. Trust me. There is a solid toffee backing which becomes more obvious with water which calls the whisky back to more traditional whisky elements. Though, despite that, it keeps an odd light menthol freshness which I can’t quite work out if it is intrusive or a vital element to keep this from becoming too heavy.
In the end I wouldn’t call it a flaw, the only real down element is a slight alcohol burn that builds up over time when neat – and you will probably want this neat as water dulls it too quickly. Minor points aside, this is sherry trifle on smoke cooked steak. Lovely jubbly.
YES THAT IS A GOOD THING!
Background: Compass Box have done well by me so far, so I grabbed this from Independent Spirit when I saw it. This is the heavier, peatier and sherried expression from the blenders. Drunk while listening to a bit of Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes, as well as some Television Villain. great stuff.