Have you ever made a whisky, blend some important malts with grain, and then you mixed it with a type of french apple liquor called Calvados? Well, Compass Box did. Spoiler alert: it didn't work. Affinity gets its name from a mixture of a blended scotch whisky with Calvados, an apple liquor that comes from a city with the same name. The actual combination is 62% whisky, 38% Calvados. You can't called this whisky legally, that is why this is labeled as a Spirit Drink. Bottled at 46%abv. On the nose, it is terrible. Sider, mr. Clean cleaning chemicals. Yellow apples, cleaning thinner, vinegar. It smells like wet paint. On the palate it is bad. Its like a red apple "flambe". Not good. Aftertaste is like bubblegum. Actually bubblegum ice cream, the blue one. Overall, you should avoid this. Compass Box, let me tell you this, i love you, but don't ever do this to me again. I am dissapointed, cloyed and even sad of having to rate this. My score for it is 41 over 100.
About this bottle
Compass Box Affinity is a spirit drink made with Scotch whisky and calvados from Normandy, France. Affinity is so named as the two spirit types have a natural affinity for each other. The calvados--which accounts for 37.5% of the spirit--is sourced from Domaine Christian Drouin and malt whisky is sourced from Craigellachie Distillery in Speyside along with a proprietary blend of Highland malts. A scotch whisky from an unknown source is also used. The wood types used in its maturation include French oak barriques, first-fill sherry butts, custom French oak casks, and refill sherry butts. Bottled without chill-filtration or color added at 46% ABV. Only 6028 bottles produced. Available April 2019.
Reviews
Showing the most detailed of 6 parsed reviews.
This is the second of two Compass Box drams I enjoyed at Persimmon in Providence. See my review of The Circle for info about the other. I don't have much experience with brandy in general, and French brandy in particular. But the idea of mixing calvados and scotch seemed interesting. And interesting it is. The nose is pastries and honey, and the palate is more pastries, baking spices and raisin. It's smooth and rounded. It's also sweet, but not sticky or overly sweet in any respect. The barrel notes seem to come primarily from the calvados and sherry in the casks, with little influence from the oak itself. Overall, I wouldn't say I was blown away, as I can be with Compass Box. But it's a very unique and worthy dram.
Sweet nose. Apple cinnamon. Fresh pastry. Floral. Taste is apple pie with a light burn that leads the way to chocolate ganache. Lingers with mouth coating caramel apple
Apple pie in a bottle, and not the moonshine type. Crisp apple taste with a sweet cinnamon hint. One of the best blends by compass box in my opinion
If you can find it, buy it. Apple pie in a bottle
Warming Apple pie Spicy
Tastes like this
Same style and price bracket, best rated first.
