Compass Box are an interesting company, who produce interesting whisky. They started out life in a kitchen led by an inventive American. They seek to create blended whiskies that are full of flavour, but cheap enough that they can be accessible for the masses. They have tried to push for more openness in the sources of blended whisky and always had a stand point of creating whiskies that aren’t chill filtered or contain any colouring.
We have been lucky enough to own a couple of their bottles and to try a few other from samples and whilst all haven’t been to our taste, each one has been of the highest standard.
Today’s dram for review is the recently released Enlightenment. It is one of Compass Box’s limited edition whiskies and is produced by blending four whiskies. The four whiskies involved are all malts and they are taken from four distilleries; Clynelish, Glentauchers, Balblair and Mortlach.
Cost: £55 – £65
Appearance: Light and summery, like a crisp white wine.
Aroma: Orchard fruits, pear, apple, vanilla and floral pollen.
Taste: The first notes here are sweet, fruity and round. There are stewed apples, pears, caramel and pastry notes. These notes are really pudding like, they remind me of home made pie.
Then in the middle there is smoke, spicing and warmth of cinnamon. This warmth sits in the well of the tongue, on the lips and descends backwards through the mouth and down the throat.
Finally, the spice becomes more smoky and vanilla. At this point the dram becomes a cross between its pudding like beginning, its spicy middle and then it develops a lightly smoked character.
Mouthfeel: This dram is complicated, floral and creamy, but spicy and light smoked.
Overall: We recently reviewed the Compass Box Circus, which was an amazing dram, but expensive, which meant that it was out of the league of most people. This dram is much more reasonable in price and still one of their range of limited edition drams. It is a fruity, silky complex dram, which feels multi layered, whilst still having a individual character that makes it very drinkable.
Real Dram Factor: 7.7
Source: Small Sample from Compass Box
More Information: Compass Box Whisky
Buy Online: Master of Malt: Enlightenment – £59.45 or Amazon: Enlightenment – £62.01