Compass Box Glasgow Blend

Compass Box isn't a brand they carry in the FW&GS in my state, but I can get it when I go to Jersey. Last Sunday, my wife suggested an impromptu trip to the OC boardwalk to eat pizza, curly fries, and ice cream and shop the stores with the kids, but my real treat is stopping at Circle Liquors on the way out of town to pick up bottles I can't get at home. This go-around I nabbed the New Riff Sour Mash Single Malt 7 Year (FW&GS sells New Riff, but only the BiB Rye and Bourbon and Single Barrels of each), which I haven't cracked yet, and this one, Compass Box's Glasgow Blend. I've only had the Peat Monster previously, which I enjoyed but don't consider a re-purchase because for its price I can get Ardbeg 10 or Laphroaig 10, which are both superior. My whisky budget was kind of tapped out for this month by the time I hit Circle Liquors or I might have picked up Compass Box's Artist's Blend, which is a similar price to this at $34.99, and I'm kind of wondering why I didn't. After all, at $34.99, I'm going to dabble with anything peated and while I'm scoring this a 3.25 overall. I can't call it a letdown. It's not the most amazingly complex whisky you'll encounter, but the price tag should have clued you in on that. Blended scotches can be really good, just ask anyone who has tasted Johnnie Walker Green, and this one, for its price, has quite a nice nose. It's listed as being finished in Oloroso Sherry Casks, but there's only a slight trace of sherried sweetness in the aroma. Mostly it's cured meats, bacon fat, sea salt. I'm not sure what they used for the component parts but it's got a character between Ardbeg and Talisker leaning more toward Talisker. And the nose is really the high point here, so enjoy it if you're pouring yourself a dram. The flavor is nice, warm, gentle. There's peat, but there's also vanilla, sea salt, and butterscotch (which I believe is where my brain goes when something tastes like "toffee pudding" which is how I guess what I'm tasting is described on the bottle) though of course, here, when I say butterscotch, I don't mean the hard candies your grandma handed out but the icing on the Krimpet bearing that name from TastyKake. If that sounds good, it is, but the mouthfeel is a little watery at 86% abv. And oh, I just found the fact sheet while I was writing this, it's on the site at Compass Box, and the peated mixture comes from Laphraoig and Clynelish, so I was WAY off. Oh well, I'll admit it here. Still, it's flavor profile is pretty enjoyable. Where this tasting falls off is the finish which is so short as to be next door to nonexistent. Oh well, what do you expect from a $34.99 bottle of blended scotch? It's solid for what it is, and if you expect that headed in, you won't be let down. Overall, I'm not sure I'd buy this one again, but I'll enjoy the botttle, and I am likely, given the quality here, to give the Artist's Blend a go when I'm back in Ocean City.

N: Smoke, peat, peat smoke, sea spray. Smoked meat. Salted fruits, if that's a thing. Fruit is mostly red, but there are hints of citrus and maybe banana dropping in and out. Leather and earth combine in a way that reminds of dry tobacco. There might be an almond nuttiness in it too - not sure about that one. P: It's an ambush! Feels like everything hits almost all at once. Salty and sweet just barely lead the charge. The salt is a sea spray type salt with a subtle meaty, earthy, smoky undertone. It's combined with the sweet, which is very red fruity and ranges from something almost like fresh strawberries to dried cranberries. The effect is, again, salted fruits. I don't hate it though. Before you've figured out the salted fruit opening, you're hit mid-palate with a rich caramel, chocolate, hazelnut attack. The salt carries through, so all those things are of the salted variety. There's a slight baked goods feel to it too. The finish starts about the same time as the mid-palate taste and merges into the baked goods adding heat and cinnamon. The salt and smoke fade some, but the chocolate lingers deep into the finish, so you get a sort of chocolate swirled cinnamon roll with just the right amount of ethanol heat. This is my 2nd review of this bottle. In between the two, I had COVID and lost my sense of smell for a while (taste was not lost, but reduced to simple things like salty, sweet, bitter, etc.). I bought this and another redo bottle thinking I'll re-review without reading my previous review first and see if my senses of smell and taste are back in full force and can be trusted again. After spending some time with this fantastic dram, I think I know without even comparing the reviews. What I recall from my first review of this bottle was that I was a bit overwhelmed by the smoke (high percentage of Lagavulin, if I recall correctly - something very smoky anyway). I also remember my more recent review of the Artist's Blend from the same Great King Street series. In that review, I said something along the lines of the Artist's Blend having a more complicated nose than palate, and that that was okay at times. This Glasgow Blend proves the opposite can also be true. I still find the nose to be dominated by the smoke and a bit one-note in that way, even if I did find something more this time. The palate here, however, is complex, phenomenal, and delicious in a way that more than makes up for a softer nose. My only complaint, if it even counts as a complaint, is that ambush feeling of the palate. A little slower presentation of the flavors would likely allow even more to come out and elevate this dram. But I can't really make that complaint in earnest for a $40 bottle that contains juice from some fantastic houses. This is a great whisky and a great value.

Rating: 14/23 N: Smoke, roast pork, some sulphur, peat. Cherry and other sweet red fruit sherry notes come out, but they''re a bit restrained. Hay and earth. It's like it wants to develop some of that Springbank funk, but it can't quite. Faint hints of sea spray. A mostly good nose that has a bit too much sulphur and is a bit too muddled without having any killer note. P: Smoke, earth, spice (cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, clove), some sulphur. There's definitely some bourbon barrel flavor here with those spices leading into a wave of vanilla that turns a little bit into caramel as it progresses. Then the red sherry fruitiness comes out. As those both recede, the sulphuric earthiness comes back to the fore along with some hay and then the peat comes in. This definitely seems more smoky than peaty, but both are present for sure. A little sea spray comes out at points too. F: Smoke, peat, vanilla, spices, occasional faint fruits. A little layer of that sulphur that just won't go away. - Conclusion - There's a lot to like here, but it's rough around the edges for sure. The flavors aren't that refined and the blur together a bit. The real problem though is that there's a sulphur note that just won't quite disappear. Had some of the components here been aged for a bit longer before bottling, this could have been a much better whiskey. Lismore 21 (19/23) also initially struck me as a bit sulphuric, but I later decided that detecting that character required a very sensitive palate. Putting them side by side here, I really can't taste the sulphur in the Lismore, but I sure can taste it in this. It's still not overwhelming though. Johnnie Walker Green (17/23) also doesn't have these problems and tastes a lot more coherent and tasty (despite my bottle having been mostly drained for months now). Dalmore 15 (15/23) still seems better than this, but it's starting to get into the ballpark. Dewar's 15 The Monarch (13/23) is cleaner than this is, but it shows its alcohol more with that kind of blended emptiness. This is definitely better than Cutty Sark Prohibition though. That one lacks the character of this while being just as sulphuric. I think this is either a 13 or a 14. It's solid enough and I'd be fine drinking it if it weren't for the sulphur. It still manages to hold up, but it's not something I'd choose to stock when Loch Lomond 12 is around the same price and Johnnie Walker Green and Laphroaig 10 aren't tremendously more expensive. After much contemplation, I think that this is a 14. I find it to definitely be too muddled, but at the same time it has more definition than many unsherried unpeated blends. Considering that, I can better appreciate the complexities that it has.

It's that time again. That magical time of year when all the "Best Whiskey of the Year" lists come out. I've been searching around and found that most of these lists consist of highly aged Scotch and limited release or allocated Bourbon, and while I'm sure these drams are delicious, the fact remains that most of us will likely never taste most of these, so over the next five days, I present to you this longhorn's humble top 5 whiskies of 2020. Most of us could agree that this was not our best year. However, all the time spent at home resulted in expanded imbibing of our favorite brown beverage. This is the criteria for my list: (1) The whiskey has to be readily available on store shelves. No special releases. This means the most excellent Wild Turkey Masters Keep expressions I tried and rated this year are out, though you should feel confident to buy on sight. (2) Every dram on my list is $80 or less. Everyone should be able to taste great whiskey, and yes, I realize my definition of "great" might be different than others, but that's the fun of what we all do here, and (3) I had to have tasted it in 2020. None of the whiskies on my list were released this year, but this year is when I finally got around to them. Coming in at #2, I present the only Scotch on my list this year, and a humble blend no less. I'm often asked what my "favorite" scotch is, or what my "favorite" distillery is, or what the "best" value for a good scotch is. There's a different answer to each of those questions, and it doesn't always stay the same. I pulled back from buying as much single malt this year because of the damn import tariffs here in the USA, and stuck mainly to my bottles of Glendronach and Ardbeg I had purchased last year, while purchasing mainly North American spirits. After a lengthy period of Bourbons, Ryes, and Canadian whiskies, I started to take another look at the blended scotch section at the store, which hadn't been impacted by tariffs. Compass Box was an early favorite of mine when I was first exploring scotch, and this bottle may be their best offering of any of their products. Peat? Check. Sherry? Check. Malt? Check. Grain? Check. This bottle quite literally is the "compass" to the four corners of Scotch whisky. Got a friend that wants to get into scotch? Tell them to buy this bottle, and then whatever flavors they like, you can point them further in that direction. Plus, it's just a delicious whisky, which of course is what John Glaser was going for in the first place. #2 whiskey of the year for 2020 is the Compass Box Glasgow Blend. Special thanks to @ScotchingHard for putting this one on my radar this year. Cheers!

2019 bottling. A pleasant golden straw with orange hue. Medium weight. Peat controls the nose, but tempered with subtle fruits lingering in the margins waiting to reward those with perseverance. A bit grapey with touches of vanilla. Iodine teases, but remains restrained. Chestnut. Honeydew. Heather. Not overpowering, but not captivating either. Smoke opens - notably more ashy than meaty. Sweet sherry and malt rise up, then are beaten back by the phenols. Cantaloupe. Honeysuckle. Biscuit. Cigarette smoke returns and lingers, which is likely a negative. There are other smokes that I enjoy much more (bring on the applewood!) I had some unfounded optimism that I was surely to "discover" the ideal highball scotch when I purchased this - in my mind's eye: a balanced yet wildly affordable blend in which the peat affirmed one's manliness and the "scotchy" origins while the sherry and more genteel components made it refreshing and quaffable at any time of day. In short, I'm not sure my vision had any realistic basis whatsoever, and this bottle's failure to meet those expectations is 99.5% not the scotch's fault. The peat is far too pronounced for me to have, as yet, skillfully render an elegant and effervescent cocktail. In a stirred alternative it may shine, and assuredly as a neat pour I have few reservations for the price. In the recent past when I could find Laphroaig 10 for $35, I would see little rationale to own this bottle. But while the tariff effect is still in play preventing any single malt competition worth mentioning for less than $50, this bottle knocks the socks off most peated blends. Clean, cohesive, balanced, and little one might find objectionable beyond the cigarette note. You could do much worse.

Nose - baked apple, raisin, fig, plum, sweet peat, brine, honey, pear, ash, vanilla, molasses, brown sugar, dry herbal notes, nutmeg, orange zest, tobacco, cherry, black pepper, smoked meat, chocolate, deep oak, moderate ethanol burn. Taste - sweet peat, salt cured meat, honey, creamy vanilla, baked apple, orange and lemon zest, raisin, plum, pear, black cherry, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, sweet oak, dark chocolate, black pepper, leather, tobacco, ginger, brown sugar, chocolate chip cookie, moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium long with sweet peat, dark fruit, black pepper, and salted smoked meat flavors. This is very well blended. The smoky, meaty, briny attributes are balanced nicely with sherried fruit, baking spices, and chocolate notes. The youthfulness is present, but it’s not overly bright or harsh. Interestingly, I’m left with a numb sensation in my mouth after the finish completes. I’m not sure if it’s just me today, or whether there’s something in the blend encouraging that. It’s not unpleasant, but worth noting. This isn’t fantastic, but I like it more than the Artist’s Blend. There’s some slight bitterness in the finish, but I don’t find it as off putting as with its counterpart. I wouldn’t stock this as a sipper, but would have no problem sipping this if it was presented to me. For the price, this is a solid option.