I am going to review both new CB whiskies released lately, the first of which is the Phenomenology. This is an Enigma of a dram, since this time (in spite of Compass Box’s Transparency Act – and only for a limited time until revealed) Compass Box are not giving us any clue as for the age, content or wood profile of this whisky. as Glaser puts it:
“We’d long been working on a blend of single malts that combines seemingly dissonant flavor profiles, but together creates something compelling. We landed on a recipe that elicited a surprising range of reactions and descriptions, each person taking away something different from the whisky.
Rather than try to settle on whose perceptions were ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, we were inspired by the phenomenological school of thought to consider how different people experience the same phenomenon.”
So, what they are telling us is this : Go Taste it. See for yourselves, no prejudice. Enjoy, and we’ll reveal some details in due time. So, let’s do just that!
Phenomenology is bottled at 46%, NCF no coloring added as usual and retails for around £125.
Nose: Red apple, and waxy notes (Did anyone say Clynelish? – very likely), light cereal, wood spices : some cinnamon and nutmeg, lovely oak , and a bit of wood varnish (some nicely aged malt for sure), musty dunnage warehouse if you give it some time.
Palate: Full bodied, and mouth-coating feeling, more of the red apple peel, malty and honeyed feeling, again that waxy Clynelish note is here, apple crumble, and wood.
Finish: Stewed apples, cereal and waxy apple peel and cinnamon.
That’s one elegant whisky, and as always with CB, it’s very good, balanced, and intriguing. The price is a bit high as you can see, but CB die hard fans would love a bottle I am sure (I would). Can’t wait for John to reveal all. Can you guess? I wonder…
Today I’m tasting two very different whiskies from Compass Box. The only similarities is that both are Blended whiskies (containing Grain & Malt whiskies). The first one is Great King Street Experimental Batch #TR-06. I’ve recently tried the sister expression ( the 00-V4 ) which was lovely. TR-06 contains 33%…
In addition to their great whiskies we like at Whisky Israel, Compass box also produces and expression that is not exactly whisky, but is based on whisky – The Orangerie. Orangerie is an infusion made from scotch whisky, hand zested orange peel from Navalino Oranges and some spices (Indonesian cassia…
The truth is I tasted this one a long time ago, even a year or more ago with a bunch of other CB’s and for some odd reason did not post my notes. Gladly I received another wee sample of this lovely dram for last month’s Compass Box twitter tasting,…
