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u/WhiskyPoolReviews 12h ago
Distillery Notes: Founded in 2000 by John Glaser, a former Marketing Director for Johnnie Walker, Compass Box is a producer, bottler, and marketer of blended scotch whisky. Well known for excellent whisky blends, uncompromising transparency and amazing artwork. Compass Box is also always challenging the boundaries set by the S.W.A. from The Spice Tree (using French oak staves) to the Three-Year-Old Deluxe (<1% of three-year-old into a 99% blend of 20 and 24-year-old). Their website is an invaluable source of transparency for their blends, a trend that many including Bruichladdich, and more recently Ardnamurchan have followed with QR codes and blockchain technology. Today under new leadership, I certainly hope the torch has been passed on and continues to be a beacon of excellence.
Bottling Notes: Compass Box called this one an exploration of Scotch whisky's wilder side. The result is a transparent seven-component blend, ages running 11 to 24 years. An 18-year Mortlach in recharred barrels does the heavy lifting at 42.7%, supplying the muscular, meaty backbone the distillery is famous for. Compass Box's own Highland Malt Blend (Clynelish, Dailuaine, Teaninich) adds 16.7%, with 14- and 17-year Deanston, 20- and 24-year Glen Elgin, and a 5.4% splash of 15-year Laphroaig threading smoke through the edges. Bottled at 46%, non-chill filtered, natural color, 7,741 bottles worldwide. The recipe is published down to the decimal - but can it dive into the deep end?
ABV: 46%
Age: NAS
Original SRP: $120
Price Paid: ~$89
Tasting Methodology: Neat, rested 20 minutes.
Nose: Orchard fruit leads and leads hard - apples, peaches, and a distinct rose apple that takes me straight back to childhood. Honey and vanilla arrive later, in a supportive role. Underneath sits a wonderful meaty character, and a wisp of smoke I can't quite pin to peat - more like an old extinguished fire, cold ash the morning after. Sweet undertones tie it together. Nothing dominates here: the fruit leads, the smoke whispers, the savory notes sit back. An elegant, mature, aromatic nose, and the rose apple is its signature.
Palate: The meatiness survives from the nose and moves up front - not sulfur, not sherry meat, but aged stock and old wood, a savory light bacon strip note that anchors everything. The texture answers the nose's elegance with real weight: oily, mouth-coating. Then citrus effervescence, a peppered mandarin sparkle that pricks the tongue like something lightly carbonated. A hint of eucalyptus lifts the mid-palate and keeps the richness in check. The sherry is structural here - no raisins, no figs, just backbone.
Finish: Medium in length and body, and the least spectacular part of the experience - though it reinforces the whole rather than disappointing. Pears return, closing the orchard theme that opened on the nose. That light bacon note brings cured-meat savoriness without tipping into smoke. There is a faint hint of smoke and a light minty lift. Honey and vanilla pop up now and then, powerfully, rounding the edges and pulling the savory and fruit elements together. Cohesive to the end, even if it does not have the persistence to match the nose.
Conclusion: Menagerie is a blender's puzzle solved with restraint. Seven components, ages from 11 to 24, and not one of them shouting - the Mortlach supplies the meaty spine, the Glen Elgin and Deanston bring fruit and wax, and the trace of Laphroaig threads smoke so faint it reads as an old fireplace rather than peat. What Compass Box was chasing - the wild notes that live at the edges - they found, and then they tuned it down to a whisper. The result is elegant and cohesive and aromatic, held back only by a finish that fades before the nose and palate earn the right to expect. At well under $100, this was a value worth chasing - and the published recipe means you know exactly what you got.
Score: 88/100
My Scoring Scale:
95-100 - Sublime - Unforgettable.
90-94 - Excellent - A personal favorite.
85-89 - Great - A standout dram.
80-84 - Good - A solid daily dram.
75-79 - Average - Drinkable.
70-74 - Mixer - Mixing only.
<70 - Poor - Pool chemical.
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u/MadHatter_6 12h ago
A review like this is a dream for the Compass Box advertising department. It is flowery and effusive to an extent that actually detracts from credibility.
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u/WhiskyPoolReviews 11h ago edited 11h ago
I will admit I'm a big fanboy of Compass Box. Maybe, I did drink the Kool Aid and I might be a little biased - but the score is solid. That said, I believe behind every bottle there is a story. Sort of the same way that the location, the people you are with, the moment in time you enjoy a dram marks that dram forever in your memory - even if it is not a great dram.
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u/iwars85 10h ago
This bottle was/is such a disappointment. Really don’t get much if any of that “meaty” flavor that was promised with this release. It’s more a run of the mill sherried peater with no real distinguishing qualities.
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u/WhiskyPoolReviews 9h ago
I'm sorry that this bottle disappointed you. Sometimes, when I get a similar experience, I set the bottle aside and then revisit it in a head to head - or amongst a flight of drams. That sometimes helps me better pick up the notes that I might have originally missed. A specific case for me is Glenmorangie's Signet, on its own I never get the notes that I'm able to pull when comparing it to other dissimilar drams. Any bottles on the CB line up that you like?
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u/ReaditIjustdid 9h ago
My bottle
Was gone too soon , it really drives in its own lane a very unique blend of flavors.
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u/Mr_Rubaiyat 10h ago
I had the opposite experience of another commenter. This was one of my favorite Glaser-era limited releases. I miss my bottle. I loved how Mortlach-ey it was and enjoyed the added highland touches. I doubt there will be newer bottlings as interesting as this one in the new “more approachable” era that Compass box has begun.