Compass Box Flaming Heart (Sixth Edition)

It’s that special time again. Time for John Glaser and the guys at Compass Box Whisky to release another edition of Flaming Heart. This is their semi-annual, heavily peated blend meant to appease the “peat-heads” of the scotch world. It’s been 3 years since the last release, though- maybe John and the gang has been getting stretched too thin with all the bespoke bottlings. Cut that out, lol. Anyway, this is the 6th Edition and they decided to add another layer to this blend by supplementing the blend with some sherried whisky. Why? I don’t have a clue- I just know the price has risen on this one by $20-25 and I don’t really like that. But, we’ll leave that gripe until the end. This one is pale yellow in the Glencairn and makes some watery legs and tiny drops on the rim. It’s bottled at 48.9% and, like all CBW blends, has no added color and isn’t chill filtered. The nose is ashtray smoke and fresh ground peppercorn up front- so strong I actually recoiled a bit when I first went in. There’s tar and alcohol steadily present and I got a bit of sweet vanilla over time- a lot of time, actually: 40 minutes or so. It took a long time for the fire to burn itself down. I’m not complaining, however, just documenting it. The palate brings more abrasive smoke and BBQ’d rubber (if that makes sense). The mouthcoat is still buttery with the faintest of sweetness finally bleeding through all the smoke and peat. Dried raisins is about all of the sherry influence I get despite there being almost 30% of the blend being sourced from sherry casked Deanston. The 40% from Caol Ila and 8% from the blended, French Oak casks are carrying the load here. As they should- this is meant to be a fireball of smoke and heat. It still predominately is, thankfully. The finish is long and smoky with more ashtray and burnt leather. It’s hot and dry and everything you love about true peat monsters (pun intended). Overall, these are still in my wheelhouse. The sherry influence escaped me here but I’m actually happy about that- well, except for the increase in price. I had to pay $130 for this bottle and I feel like that’s $30 too much. I miss my old $100 Flaming Hearts, I really do. I’ll also gladly forego the added sherry next time, thank you. But realistically, this is still a fantastic dram if you like your peat. 4.25 stars. Cheers.

Like many of you, I love Compass Box.  Basically every CB whisky - core offerings, limited editions, peated or non-peated, super experimental or classic expressions.  While it would be nice to have one of each, CB puts out a lot of different whiskies (22 current offerings, based on the on the CB website), with a fairly high rate of turnover for the special editions.  So I'm trying to be a bit selective. I've been particularly curious about the Flaming Heart,  so it was an easy pick from the Franklin Room's menu.   It lived up to my expectations - peaty, bold and a nice fruit sweetness.  No bitterness, not an off note to be found and a nice smokey finish.  Nevertheless, I really wish I could have tried it alongside Peat Monster, which I recall as being very similar, and considerably cheaper.  And at $100+, the Flaming Heart has strong competition from a few other CB offerings.  So is it a buy? In the immediate term, I answered the buy question the following day at Binny's in Lincoln Park (a great tip from @ANTONIOSCHMID).   The Compass Box selection at Binny's was phenomenal, as was the selection of local craft whiskeys and just about everything else.  Hard choices were inevitable. The Flaming Heart was on sale for $114, but in the end, I chose two different CB's - a first edition No Name, simply because of the degree to which the whisky senseis here rave about it, and the Lost Blend, because it also has some fine reviews and I suspect it will be a bit different from other CB peated offerings. However, it looks like the availability of the current Flaming Heart is good, and I haven't ruled out a purchase yet.

Nose - smokey under tone. I get a deep earthy peat here, like the ground a few days after a camp fire. Followed by a lot of sherry - they claim subtle sherry, this ain't subtle. I do however still get some vanilla and bourbon oak as well. I'm forgetting the blend but I'm pretty sure we're looking at talisker and caol ila (sure about some of that one) for the peat. I get some talisker spice (I know I'll be called out as wrong for that but I'm risking it) and there's just a nature of Caol Ila I can't place but gives me this note. Maybe a bit of grassy oily waxy elements at the sweetness as well (I'll likely be wrong on that whisky in the mix too so I won't mention it, lol). Taste - Wow the flavor isn't what I expected. The bottle has been open since launch and been near half a bottle since launch (I hit this one hard to start). I get a berry, then a distinct vinegar based BBQ, touch of smoke, vanilla, some older oak, some leather, tobacco. I've never gotten this vinegar BBQ ever, i get a very "springbank" BBQ note, but NOTHING like this. This is sweet honey BBQ. As it tames that BBQ goes and I get a bit of a Caragiale like notes. The finish is pretty unique, bitter, touch of citrus, oak, vanilla, touch of sulfur, and a bit stale. I was going to give this one some fine notes for the nose but the flavor has dropped off. There's a lot of interesting flavor here, but none of it goes well together. I just can't give a compass box with peat a 1.5. 1.75 and only because of my bias. 150 bucks - just pass.

Info: Composé d'une grande partie de Caol Ila (29%) qui apporte de l'élégance à l'ensemble, on y trouve également du Clynelish (17%) et du Deanston (17%), avec quelques autres whiskies encore non identifiés. Cette édition réintroduit le fut de sherry, utilisé la dernière fois avec l'édition de 2012. Nez: fumé de feu de camp, pas trop agressant. Des raisins sucrés. Des fruits frais. Vanille subtile. Du moins, un coté parfumé et floral. Bouche: Fruité-fumé. Fraise-raisin, fumé bien dosé. Des noix. Huileux et doux. Très gouteux. C'est évident que le blend est composé de produit de haute qualité. C'est tout ce que j'attendais de Compass Box. Je ne peux comparer avec l'édition précédente mais l'influence de Sherry est bien là et s'affirme de façon tellement harmonisé que j'ai de la difficulté à concevoir ce que serait ce produit sans l'influence de sherry. C'est parfait comme ça! final: Fumé, chaud, fruité. Un coulis aux framboise sur du chocolat noir. Overall: Way to go! Compass Box frappe un coup de circuit avec cette édition. Rien de trop gentil en bouche sans être non plus un coup de poing. La tourbe est agencé de façon élégante et émane une chaleur avec le taux de 48%. Intensité aromatique très équilibré entre le fruit frais et le cendré-fumé. Jamais vu un whisky qui portait aussi bien son nom. Ici autour de 120$ CAD, le rapport qualité prix est très favorable. Une flamme qui mérite un 94%.

Flaming Heart is one of those Compass Box expressions that comes and goes. This edition, has been made by blending Deanston, Caol Ila, Clynelish, an undisclosed Highland Malt and a parcel of the Spice Tree Extravaganza. It is marketed as oaky and peaty, for a late night with a cheese pairing. Bottled at 48.9%abv, it has a pale gold color. On the nose, it is very peaty and a little too powerful. A Rubber kind of peat. Pineapple and recently baked brownies. Burnt hay, fresh gooseberries. Strong mint candy. Very fresh with a lovely honey note. After 3 minutes this has become a honey candy. After the first sip, the peat, mint and everything harsh has tamed, a small honey and salt is the only thing present. On the palate, it is an instant sea wave.  Very salty, a little honey and some pineapple heart. The spiciness is exactly as bitting the pineapple heart. The second sip is full of honey. Candied almonds. Aftertaste is incredible. Burnt wood, maritime, salty, oak spice and beautiful island peat. Incredible finish. Burnt hay and bonfire. It felt truly amazing. Overall, this has the Compass Box Signature all over it. It is very enjoyable and not overly complex. It delivers a very good amount of peat. The palate is not super great but manages to survive. My score for it is an 88 over 100.

You can generally tell whether a limited run whiskey is a great dram at the right price point..if its sold out. 2 years later this still hasn't. At $130 there are probably a couple of hundred drams (literally) I'd buy over this. Similar to the Juveniles release I'm picking a price drop. CB has been just too detached from reality over the last couple of years in their special releases. No doubt COIVD-19 may put paid to that. Sometimes when they do something special it really is hard to put a price on greatness and it's hard to argue if it's overpriced or not. There is no hesitation with this one..it is. Peat monster is 40% of the price and not to far off this one (albeit a different dram). I heard this was a pale imitation of the original and that seems correct. Simple Caol Ila style dram, higher abv and lighter style wrapped in expensive clothing and priced accordingly. Move on folks nothing to recommend purchasing hear unless you see it 50% off. Even then just go for the real deal Caol Ila 18