Compass Box Artist Blend

This is my second time enjoying this whisky. I just purchased a bottle at Gaspar's Liquor Shoppe in Tampa for retail price ($38.99). It is a Tampa Bay Whisky Society barrel pick. Tasted neat from a glencairn. Let's get into it. The pour is very pale golden yellow, reminiscent of Mellow Corn. A swirl shows significant sheeting with small, slow tears forming along the glass. The nose is honeysuckle, dry grass, ripe orchard fruit, a bit of sweet sugar, a touch of vanilla. Its not complex, but there's a bit more going on there than the typical blend. Mouthfeel is creamy and sophisticated. This is easy to drink neat or with a drop. I really need to get into this on ice and this might make a very good highball with club soda. This particular expression from Compass Box is a 49% ABV, 98 proof. It's bigger than virtually any blend I've ever had. On the tongue the Compass Box is all honey, sweet vanilla, almost a Juicy Fruit note in there.... It's very easy to enjoy up front, but the finish is a bit different. Because of the proof, this has a bit of pepper and a long, glorious finish. It coats the mouth with a sweet film and after the swallow the capsacin comes out to play, warming the palate all the way to the chest. LOVELY! In comparison the Dewar's Ancestor is smokier, dirtier, and has more elements I associate with grain alcohol. There's no trace of grain, no notes of acetone in the Compass Box. I really didn't think there was any in the Dewars, but in comparison its there. In comparison the Dewar's 12y.o. ($25 on sale) has a more briny, oceanic nose with a touch more smoke and a bit less of the candy. A drop of distilled water opens the nose even a bit more on the CB. The Dewar's get a bit more briny with a drop, but the CB gets a better separation of fragrant floral elements. I think a drop of water brings the CB together quite nicely. It might even enjoy a cube. It certainly is a great summertime whisky! This Compass Box is a better whisky than the Dewars, full stop. It's bigger, richer, more complex and higher proof. Its not quite a smoky/peaty as the Dewars, but the two are otherwise similar qualitatively. That said, this isn't even close to perfect. The sweet is overdone and the pepper is out of balance. It's good, not great. The Dewars was on sale for $25, but MSRP is $30. CB seems to be around $40 to $45. Is it worth a 33% premium? Should you buy the Compass Box over the Dewar's 12? Yes if you're drinking it neat. Yes if you want something a bit more complex and sweet. Not necessarily if you're drinking it on ice or in a highball. And maybe if you're building cocktails, but it depends on the cocktail. They may be somewhat similar in profile, but they are not equal nor are they substitutes. So my rating... I rate on a bell curve where the typical mass market will hit a 2.5 star leve. To make it to 4 stars a whisky has to be very good indeed. This expression doesn't make it quite that far, but its a step ahead of the blended competition. This is a solid 3.5 and its a good value. Great job and I am definitely going to be checking out some of the other CB expressions!

It's interesting tracing the history of whisky production and consumption. It seems like what has been "in vogue" changes over the decades and centuries the same way fashion, political movements, and the baking soda in my refrigerator. For many, many years, blended whisky was the preferred tipple of both commoner and gentry alike, while single malts were either bottom shelf slag or not made available to the public. It was only in the late 70's and 80's when the marketing mucky mucks decided to elevate single malts to the place of prominence that we hold (and pay for) them at today, while blends have been regulated to the bottom shelf and the back of the store. I've always admired what Compass Box has done in terms of innovation with an eye towards history. This blend and its brother, Glasgow blend, are a clear nod to that history. What comes to mind when you think of Scotch Grain Whisky? Could it be the harsh, metallic notes of JW Red or Cutty Sark? How about inferior and obscure relative to your favorite single malts? Ever heard of North British or Cameronbridge? What about soft, creamy, coconut, and vanilla? Not what you might expect, but that's what you find in the Artist's blend. Wakey wakey to a sunshiney nose of grass, hay, apples, pears, sage, white pepper, graham crackers, and cream. It enters on your palate a bit thin at first, but blooms into peaches and cream, vanillas, lemon bars, macaroons....it's pastries in a glass! The finish takes a turn I wasn't expecting, moving into a drier, spicier mouthfeel that lasts for a medium to long amount of time. No sharp edges. No metallic notes. Just a nice sip. Repeated tastes remain consistent, and the finish builds up on the palate the more you drink it. So at the time I'm writing this, it's about 106 outside. I love my high proof bourbons and sherry or peat monsters as much as the rest of you, but when it's this hot, I want something light to sip on. This fills the bill just right. For those of you new to whisky or looking for a good gateway into Scotch, this is your dram. It's eminently representative of the Highland/Speyside style, and comes with 43% proof, NCF, and total transparency from the production team (Take notes, Diageo!). If you watch the Whisky Vault channel and you've tried Monkey Shoulder, this is comparable to that one, but I think you get a little added complexity with the grain whisky element. Final score is 3.5, with an added .25 for value. Cheers!

Nose: sherried nose, raspberry, creamy, oak, blackberry jam, and a bit of toffee and vanilla. Palate: rich tannic sherry, white pepper, oak, and a fine sweet taste of honey and stewed apple. Good, but not as good as the nose. Finish: medium-long that reminded me of a 15yo Linkwood I had. Not surprising given 8% is Linkwood in sherry casks. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Last 16, Match 1: Compass Box King St. Artists Blend versus Dewar’s The Ancestor 12yo The Ancestor 12yo never stood a chance. Beaten on all three fronts – the Dewar's grainy nose was rather nondescript, the palate was grain, butter, shortbread with some tart citrus, and the finish was short and dry. Do kids say “wipeout!” these days? _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Qtr Final, Match 1: Compass Box King St. Artists Blend versus Ben Nevis 10yo Raspberry and cream are what pop out when trying this again, but I also got toffee and blackberry jam. The palate is good but not as good as the nose. Up against Ben Nevis 10yo it betters it on the nose and finish, but it lags a good way behind on the palate. Reluctantly, I have to concede that Ben Nevis may be on the losing side to this great blend. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- The intolerable torment of a whiskyphile. I have too large a backlog of samples and miniatures to go through. Like selecting what to watch next on Netflix, often selecting a dram can take twice as long as drinking it. Taking inspiration from @Milliardo and the Filmspotting podcast, I have picked sixteen scotch whiskies that are 12yrs or younger or NAS to battle it out in a Scotch Deathmatch. It’s my incentive to lighten the logjam. Follow along if you care (and really why should you?). Oh the drama! https://challonge.com/ScotchMadness

N: Raspberries and cream. Peach, honey, and flowers (maybe roses even, but I don't trust my sense of specific flower smells). Tea and driftwood with possibly a light whiff of smoke. Little bit of a medicinal mint or even menthol. Tiny drop of water in a Glencairn brings out a little bit of stone and orchard fruit, but doesn't feel like this blend is really holding much back - it already smells fantastic. P: Lots of vanilla, caramel, and then some apples. The raspberries and cream is there too, but diminished and pushed to the background. There's a dried berries character in it. Subtler hits of leather and, like the nose, maybe a little bit of smoke. Finish is cinnamon spice, tannic and drying with a mild bitterness that comes in and out against the spice. Dried fruit also sort of plays against the spice and mingles with the bitterness here and there. The finish also feels very close to a good bourbon, more so than most scotches I've tried, and gives it a kind of odd American feeling. (The Compass Box website provides a breakdown of the component whiskies, and 72% of them were aged in first fill bourbon barrels, so perhaps that kind of explains that bourbon character.) I loved this. The nose is unique and shows the range that can be achieved with blended scotch. The palate is about a step behind the nose in terms of complexity, but that's not always a bad thing and it feels acceptable here. The bold, bourbon-style spicy hot finish is pretty aggressive for a blended scotch, but unless you just hate bourbon, it's interesting to see and drink the crossroads of ideas that comes out of this bottle. And, like the Glasgow blend, this is an excellent value dram.

Nose - apple, pear, honey, vanilla, floral notes, lemon zest, powdered sugar, hay, orange blossom, buttered bread, moderate ethanol burn. Taste - apple skin, honey, creamy vanilla, pear, black pepper, floral notes, lemon and orange zest, ginger, mint, bitter herbal notes, butter, mild to moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium length with apple, black pepper, bitter herbal, and tannic apple skin flavors. I wanted to like this more, given the glowing reviews I’ve read about it. Artist’s Blend is light, fruity, and floral on the nose. The palate is similar, but more pepper and bitter herbal notes appear. I think this is sippable, but it’s not a sipper. It’s not sulphuric, meaty, or industrial like some of the cheap blended scotches, but those apple skin tannins and bitter herbal notes become rather unpleasant the more I work through the dram. As a mixer, this performs nicely. However, I’m not sure it’s worth paying $40 a bottle for this when Dewar’s and some of the other usual suspects can be had for half the price. This is absolutely better than Dewar’s and I’d much rather sip it, but I know I’m never going to use this as a sipper. I haven’t performed the comparison yet, but in the realm of cocktails, I wonder whether it’s worth paying the premium for this over something like Dewar’s. Maybe some of you blended scotch cocktail experts out there can tell me I’m crazy and using that Dewar’s swill is tantamount to sacrilege. Is the quality of mixed drinks this will produce worth paying twice the price to achieve it?

Rating: 13/23 N: Sweet with mild wood (a bit of barrel spice) giving it kind of a nectar flavor. Kind of creamy with sultanas and maybe a little tangerine. A faint hint of meat and a little paper. Not a super complex nose, but a generally pretty solid one. P: Initially some sweet nectar (light sultana with a dash of tangerine tartness) with vanilla and a nice balanced highland character, albeit more mellow than complex. It gets kind of creamy and I get a hint of paper from it too. As it goes on, I get some harshness though. There are some nice bourbon barrel spices to the harshness that balance with the vanilla, but there's no denying the harshness here. There isn't as much grain or oil as in Dewar's 15 The Monarch, but I also taste less alcohol, though there still is some. F: Creamy, faint sultana remnants, some lingering spice burn. This isn't a very complex or tasty finish, but it's fine. - Conclusion - This generally seems better than Dewar's 15 The Monarch (13/23), so I now know which of the two makes a better staple. That said, the harshness here is a big problem. Without it, this would be a lot better. Compass Box Great King Street Glasgow (14/23) is more muddled flavors, giving it a less precise profile, but the harshness here really hinders this. Huh, I think the Glasgow blend is substantially better now and the Dewar's is about the same quality. I guess I'm looking at a 13 here.