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“Because you can't buy happiness... but you can buy whisky and that's pretty much the same thing”

Read stories about Compass Box of A Wardrobe of Whisky blog.

You can read here older articles posted in A Wardrobe of Whisky since 2009.
The articles are sorted by publication date. You can either browse here, check the featured articles section or use the search bar on the top of this page.

Compass Box Great King St. Glasgow Blend and The Lost Blend Reviews

By Miguel in Tasting , Compass Box

One of my favorites stops at the The Whisky Show in London is the Number One stand with their fantastic Karuizawa ( don’t give them a try, it is bad stuff, forget about what I have written. Pesky whisky! ) and Compass Box stand with their whiskies…

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I am realizing that they are quite opposite style, one is about a dismantled distillery’s single casks monsters and the other is about good whisky for everyone. I have tasted now a few Compass Box whiskies over the years and I am not going to see all of them are fantastic but definitively none of them dissappoint!

Today I review two of their new additions to the range: Great king St. Glasgow Blend and The Lost Blend. Remember that as always I do taste the whisky blind, and later I read all the PR stuff to write these awesome articles like this one :D

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Compass Box Great King St. Experimental Whiskies Review

By Miguel in Compass Box

Compass Box isn’t just about whisky… and they show you it in each of their whiskies. So when I went to the Whisky Show and I saw some people wearing a sticker that says “I love smoke” that I though it was some kind of protest against smoking bans.

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When I finally entered the show I saw the answer at the Compass Box stand, they have created two version of their Great King St. Blended whisky: one with a sherried character and the other with a smokey touch. You had to choose between them.
So let me show you both whiskies and then I tell you what I chose.

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Compass Box The General Review

By Miguel in Tasting , Compass Box

Well, after knowing about it in November I launched myself into buying one bottle because the price wasn’t that bad for a 33 years old whisky ( although a big part of it is 40 years old ). But it haven’t been till now that I have come to taste it ( damn you LEGO! ).

So here is my review of the General, another awesome blend by Compass Box.

“Oh. My. God. Lovely whisky. Imagine an old ( and I mean OLD! ) malt whisky blended aged in bourbon or refill casks with a hint of old ( OLD! I mean ) rye whiskey. All my thumbs up”

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Compass Box The General Blended Scotch Whisky
A 2013 release, Compass Box's The General is made from two parcels of blended scotch whisky, both of which were blended at a young age and then left to mature in the cask. At the time of bottling one was 33 years old and the other 40. Aged in a combination of bourbon and sherry casks, this is soft but with an incredible complexity.

This dram has a cooper-like color.

Nose (92): more than average. honey, flowers, dust, wood, orange zest, vanilla, spices.

Palate (92): powerful, oily. honey, flowers, wood, citrus, spices, liquorice, cloves, fruits. I swear I have taste something like this before.

Finish (92): longer than average. spices, fruits, honey.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Compass Box The General Blended Scotch Whisky with 92 points over 100.

Miguel says…

Would I buy it again? Definitively. Now that I read the description of the bottle I have noticed that it wasn’t as sherried as Glenfarclas 40yo even if it comes from a sherry cask. Anyway… do yourself a favour and get one :)


FT: Compass Box The Last Vatted Whiskies Review

By Miguel in Tasting , Compass Box

A few years ago, the Scotch Whisky Association or SWA for friends, decided to ban the term vatted whisky to refer to the result of blending different single malt whiskies into a vat and bottling that. They said that blended malt whisky was a better term and it won’t cause confusion on the buyers with blended whisky. #bullshit

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Most people were whining about it, but Compass Box saw here a real money opportunity and launched to bottle what would be the very last vatted malt, and as a surprising extra, the last vatted grain.

Another post for the Fucking thief. Stealing other persons’ whisky so you can know about it. Is this your photo? Write me to fthief@awardrobeofwhisky.com and I will pay you… homage… and share with A Wardrobe of Whisky’s readers your experience on the tasting. Slainte!

So far I haven’t been disappointed with any Compass Box whisky, so I bought these two with my eyes closed. Let’s review them.

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The Balkan Tiger and the Ardbeg's whispers

By Miguel in Uncategorized , Tasting , Ardbeg , Bunnahabhain , Compass Box , Wemyss

Welcome to a new session of my random blind tastings! This one is WTF Tasting 003.

If you recall previous sessions, one of my biggest “problems” with whisky tasting was to make my mind to choose a set of drams to taste. I love peated whiskies and mid age sherried drams but once you start tasting one after the other it becomes a bit plain ( with great surprises from time to time )… so why not just add some spices into the mix?

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WTF Whisky Tastings is just a new fun way of lowering my samples’ box level with a flight of four and five random drams taking blindly from the box.

So here are this week flight…

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Tasting Compass Box Flaming Heart vs Peat Monster

By Miguel in Tasting , Featured , Laphroaig , Caol Ila , Compass Box , Tobermory , Ardmore

When visiting London for TWE Whisky Show, I meet Chris Maybin, Comercial director of Compass Box. Chris gave me a sample of the new Compass Box Flaming Heart 4thbatch to taste it at home.

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Well, finally I arranged a free evening for tasting it when I saw @WhiskyLassie asking how it compared against Compass Box Peat Monster. Also I have a pending task of tasting the old recipe of Peat Monster with Laphroaig and Ardmore against the new recipe using Caol Ila, Ledaig and Ardmore.

A great tasting was starting to appear before me.

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Compass Box Flaming Heart 4th Release: Incredible!

By Miguel in Tasting , Compass Box

“Five stars whisky! Compass Box has created an awesome value whisky in this Flaming Heart: complex, old , well matured and peated. I can't ask anything else”

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Compass Box Flaming Heart - Release 4
This is the fourth release of this peaty blended malt from the whisky artisans at Compass Box.

Inspired by a rock song, this blended malt is made using whisky from refill Bourbon barrels, new (heavily toasted) French oak and some sherried oak which is a great new addition!

The whiskies are from distilleries across Scotland but there is a fair whack of a south shore Islay (Laphroaig, Ardbeg or Lagavulin) and a malt from the village of Brora ( Clynelish? ).

This dram has a gold-like color.

Nose (92): more than average. peat, salt, honey, earth, citrus, apples, plums.

Palate (92): powerful, oily. peat, honey, pepper, iodine, salt, wood, citrus, coffee.

Finish (91): longer than average. peat, citrus.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Compass Box Flaming Heart - Release 4 with 92 points over 100.

Buy this bottle at

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TWE Whisky Show 2012: What I couldn't taste [Part 4]

By Miguel in Laphroaig , Cooley , Chivas , Johnnie Walker , The Macallan , Dewar , Penderyn , Bunnahabhain , Compass Box , Monkey Shoulder , Glenfiddich , The Balvenie , Kilchoman , Highland Park , Bowmore , Yoichi , Nikka , Suntory , Balblair , Redbreast , Glenfarclas , Connemara , Ichiro , Rosebank , Benriach , Glendronach , Old Pulteney , Dalmore , Glen Garioch , Big Peat , Glenglassaugh , Glenrothes , Maker's Mark , Hibiki , Four Roses , Glencadam , Wemyss , Douglas Laing

This post continue from TWE Whisky Show [Part 3]

The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show 2012 took place at October 6th and 7th and although it has been a great experience it has been a short one. With over 450 whiskies to taste and just barely six hours ahead it was impossible to taste them all.

What I couldn’t taste

This post is just a set of photos of what I couldn’t taste. Sorry, people… I can write about this because I get sad… so great stuff that I had to skip… *sniff*

I visited Compass Box stand for saying hi to Chris and I take a few photos with the people on the show.

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Compass Box Eleuthera Tasting note

By Miguel in Tasting , Compass Box

“Interesting peated whisky from Compass Box. A bit over-spicy but nice.”

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Compass Box Eleuthera
A miniature of the departed Eleuthera vatted malt from Compass Box.

This blended malt whisky is the father of Compass Box Peat Monster, a blend of Highland and Islay Single Malt Scotch whiskies that create this interesting dram.

This dram has a white wine-like color.

Nose (82): average. a little peat, honey, spices, citrus, floral, wood.

Palate (88): smooth, powerful, oily. peat, honey, floral, wood, spices, citrus.

Finish (87): longer than average. peat, wood, spices.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Compass Box Eleuthera with 86 points over 100.

Compass Box The Last Vatted Grain Tasting note

By Miguel in Tasting , Compass Box

“Good grain whisky just a bit short of being great.”

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Compass Box Last Vatted Grain
Launched alongside Compass Box The Last Vatted Malt, The Last Vatted Grain was launched to mark the end of "vatted whisky".

From the 22nd November 2011, blends of single grain whiskies may no longer be called "vatted grains". Instead, they must be labelled "blended grain whisky".

This particular stunner is a mix of 42 year old Invergordon, 14 year old Cameron Bridge, 29 year old Carsebridge and 20 year old Port Dundas.

This dram has a fino-like color.

Nose (91): more than average. corn, honey, spices, vanilla, wood, banana, tropical fruits.

Palate (90): smooth, powerful. honey, corn, spices, wood, fruits, cinnamon. Very nice but light. I prefer stronger whiskies.

Finish (89): longer than average. honey, corn, spices, cinnamon.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Compass Box Last Vatted Grain with 90 points over 100.