Compass Box Spice Tree Extravaganza

After having worked my way through most, if not all, of Compass Box Whisky’s core range of blends I found that I had completely ignored, or just missed out on, their re-formulation of the standard Spice Tree. Now, I remember enjoying the original quite a bit as I thought the use of traditional oak casks and ex-bourbon, French oak added a nice level of complexity to CBW’s standard, sherry cask fare. The Extravaganza was released in 2016, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Spice Tree, and it is rumored that the original blend was beefed up with older stock while utilizing first-fill sherry and special hybrid casks. What is a hybrid cask, you ask? Well, I believe it’s where blenders, and even a few distilleries, take pieces from different styles of casks and rebuild them like Frankenstein: take the ends off of a sherry cask and place them on an ex-bourbon cask or it could be simply to add oak spirals from one type of cask into a different style. Aka, Experimentation to another level. Anyway, Extravaganza utilized a lot of this while increasing the sherry-casked whisky into the overall recipe- voila, Spice Tree Extravaganza was born. The ABV was also bumped up to 46%, as was the price point. I paid $97 for this bottle and I still think it was worth every penny. The whisky is rich gold and very oily. Big, watery drops and slick legs greet you after giving yourself a healthy pour. The nose has noticeably more sherry than the spicy notes I recall from the old Spice Tree. There’s vanilla and butterscotch giving off a sweet, creamy vibe. I wish the nose was more like the old stuff, but the palate is where the transformation really takes hold. The flavor profile is much deeper than before: vanilla beans and chocolate covered almonds lead into the sherry and spicy mid point. Peppers and oak spices warm things considerably and make this thing really take off. It’s oily on the tongue, as well, and it just coats every inch of your mouth and wakes the tastebuds. It’s still incredibly rich, yet smooth. I could be content just to sit and roll this stuff back and forth across the tongue. The finish is also somewhat long and warming. The spices and sweet vanilla and sherry just linger on and on. It’s blended so well it’s hard to guess the ages of the whisky used in larger amounts. There has to be some young juice in here, but I’ll be damned if I can’t detect a weakness in the complexity and mouth feel. It’s that good. Overall, this is a wonderful departure from most of the core range and there are bottles still littered across lots of store shelves. If you find a store offering this up on clearance or even at a price below $75-80 I’d buy multiples. It’s classy and sophisticated if you need that for a special occasion to show off to some noobs, yet it’s complex enough to withstand a round table discussion with your whisky connoisseur friends. Or you could just hoard it all and spend a quiet evening on the veranda with it and a rich cigar (if that’s your thing). 4.5 stars all day long. Cheers.

Before I blow my taste buds with peat lets do this one. So another Glen Ord and Clynelish type dram with about 50% of this being not that old blends with 80% Clynelish and about 33% being decently aged Glen Ord. Nose - gives off a pretty good amount of sherry as well as that waxy note of a Clynelish. The fruit honey notes I get with really Glen Ord, Clynelish, and Dailuaine as well. I also get a bit of an orchard fruit as well. For a whisky with spice in the name, no spice here. Just a lot of sweet and fruity notes with a good healthy amount of sherry. Taste - My first though was the spice isn't here either, but I'm wrong. There's a nice french oak like bite that's covered up at first by sweet decadent creamy fruit vanilla and sherry notes but the oak gets to have a nice firm statement before the dram's finish takes over. I'm sure there's ginger and clove and other spices here, I've never really taken the time to really know those spices but I see notes like that on enough whiskies with some similarities to know that we'll have them here too. Overall a very high quality dram at about 125 bucks I don't think you're getting a bad value. That said a part of me just wishes he could have had the Glen Ord as a single cask, this sherry is nice. Score - I'm debating at 2.75 or a 3.0. The opening is a 3.0 easy and maybe higher. The spicy finish isn't optimal, it comes a bit out of left field and the actual finish is short. That said there's so many good flavors, it's well aged, it's 46%, it's not chill filtered, it's not colored and I'm telling you if the finish was on par with the start this could be getting into the special range. I'm going 3.0 and I really don't think anyone who's considering this one will be disappointed. I just don't think anyone will be wowed either. The standard spice tree is not remotely close to this quality and yes this is worth significantly more than the standard.

The biggest problem is the name. This is not Spice Tree. This is not related to Spice Tree. Spice Tree is a great affordable blend that is very spicy. This blend is obviously older and more luxurious than Spice Tree, but it’s not necessarily better. It’s like if Spice Tree was a $3 taco at the standing-room-only, hole-in-the-wall taco spot that always has a line up because it’s that good; Spice Tree Extravaganza might be that “taco” at the fancy restaurant with a tasting menu that brings out their “re-imagined” deconstructed taco that has caviar and a gold leaf with some green sauce on the side. And you’re just like, “That ain’t no fucking taco.” They should have called this Fruit Tree. I might have given this a star if it just changed the name. It’s not a bad whisky. It wants to go down the fruity direction, but it’s half-hearted. About 50% of this blend is Glen Ord and Benrinnes matured in first fill sherry casks. You get feathery soft notes of red fruits, figs, and dates. A honeycomb and wax Clynelish style stands out more than anything, and there is some Clynelish in here. In terms of spices, there’s some vanilla, nutmeg, and clove; but it’s hardly a spice extravaganza. This blend tastes like it should be expensive, but it really does not stand out. The name and the packaging are definitely misleading. Score: 0 (forgettable) How much does a bottle cost: $105-140 at retail. It’s getting hard to find and is starting to show up at higher secondary pricing. How much do I think a bottle is worth: $90

Spice Tree, which I reviewed a few months ago, is the best of Compass Box's regular lineup of blended scotches, and is a better scotch at around $60 a bottle than Johnnie Walker Green Label or Blue Label, two much more expensive and well-known blends. Extravaganza is the company's "upscale" version of Spice Tree, which means that the components are older and presumably more expensive to acquire than those that make up the original. At about $130 a bottle, this is squarely in the middle of the high end or limited edition Compass Box blends. It is also an excellent whisky, although not without flaws. The nose features some graham cracker, oats, orange, sherry, and spice. That spice, the whisky's namesake, grows in influence in its taste, which features pepper, all-spice, and honey in addition to those grain notes and sherry. The finish is where the age reveals itself, as it's much oakier than standard Spice Tree and quite long. I found this scotch to be a little hot, which was a surprise for an older blend.

I wasn't a fan of the original Spice Tree, but that didn't seem like a good enough reason not to try the Extravaganza. A nose of gentle aromas that have to fight a little against the heat. There's pretty fruit, honey, custard, and some ground coffee. The palate is also a melange of delicate tastes but primarily vanilla malt and honeyed fruits. The finish is a tad hot, a little nutty, with subtle but persistent chimney smoke. This grew on me but I wanted some clarity. Perhaps if the alcohol wasn't so prevalent the softer notes would shine more.

Butterscotch, vanilla and "baking spices" are the star of the show here. A whisky for bourbon fans, it's a delicious after dinner dram. Definitely on the sweeter side, but not cloyingly so. It has a fantastic "chew" and long finish typical of Compass Box's higher end offerings. The cost gives me pause though. Is this worth double the price of Spice Tree? Or some of the nice bourbons it resembles? Hard to say.