Compass Box No Name Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Today I've got a whisky you probably didn't know exists. Perhaps it doesn't.

They've called it No Name, which is ironic. Or perhaps it isn't. I mean, is No Name the name of the whisky or does the whisky have no name?

Maybe this whisky doesn't exist at all, or perhaps there's going to be 15,000 bottles of it at around £100/€134.

They tell us that 75.5% comes from Pier road, Islay (google maps it), from a re-charred American standard barrel. 10.6% from Port Askaig, Islay (again, maps), from a refill American standard barrel. 13.4% from Brora on the mainland (that should be an easy one), from a recharred hogshead, and 0.5% is CB's highland malt blend from a heavy toast, French oak hybrid cask. A lot of info there. More puzzles, more questions.

Perhaps we'll find the answers to the questions, perhaps in a few weeks. Then again, maybe we'll never know.

The packaging is amazing, although they've forgone a box for a display case, which I don't like so much.

Dark.

Brooding.

Mysterious.

This is... (Whisper it) No Name...

(mysterious whistling wind noises)

Compass Box No Name 48.9%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Fantastic meld of old smoke, lime juice (which gives the pier rd, Islay distillery away immediately, even if they hadn't said Pier rd) and amazing sharp grapefruit. Fantastic balance and complexity.

Taste: Sharp amazing citrus, lime and grapefruit, oils glide across the palate. Incredible complexity. Flawless balance. Textbook, really.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Creamy, not as amazing as the taste, but still great of course. Drier with this sooty note.

What a whisky. From my experience, it tastes like that Peir rd distillery is from 1991. I've had a few from the 90's, and the only one with that grapefruit note was 1991. That would be amazing for the price, so I doubt it but anything is possible. Anyway, this is an immediate buy and if I'd have to recommend one whisky you pick up this year so far, it's this. By quite a way.

88/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #450

Whisky Network Review #513

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Octomore 8.3 Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working at Whisky Live in Paris the last few days and had the chance to try some new and very exciting releases. Of course, I didn’t really have the time to do full reviews, but managed to make some notes on most things I tried.

So, this is one of the latest Octomore’s and one of many ‘lose your shit’ bottlings I got to try… Sooo more to come my friends…

As if Octomore wasn’t peaty enough, they went and peated it more. Up to 309ppm. Which is a new level. The most I’ve tried is the 7.2, which was 208ppm. This was made from Islay barley, peated and peated and peated, then put into 1st fill Bourbon and various red wine barrels.

This was the main whisky I wanted to try in Paris really, and the ladies on the stand, very graciously, opened the bottle for me.

Octomore 8.3 61.2%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Classically Octmore, elegant but HUGE, imagine you distilled a piece of peat, I think this is what you'd get. Amazingly earthy and minerally, subtle sweetness, Adam Hannett's white grape signature, dry, seaweed.

Taste: So good. Soft and building slowly, like it's got all the time in the world. Seaweed, fresh fruit, then HUGE mineral notes. Goes on and on, growing and growing. So subtle and so big.

Finish: Long length. Mineral, rocks, oily, sticks to the mouth for a LONG time. DRY.

I’d put it between the 7.3 (86) and the amazing OBA (87), in terms of a score. It just about scrapes by the 7.3 but doesn’t quite get up to the level of the OBA. Great juxtaposition of the big and subtle here. Really, I needed to try this with water but didn’t get enough or the time.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #449

Whisky Network Review #512

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Cotswolds Single Malt [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Recently I’ve been working at Whisky Live Paris and so I’ll be posting up some quick reviews and thoughts on some new releases that I’ve been curious about.

First up is Cotswolds distillery’s first single malt, having only just reached 3 years old. They used some 1st fill Bourbon and some STR (Scrapped, toasted recharred, normally ex-red wine barrels).

Cotswolds Single Malt 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Toffee and caramel, very little youth, fully mature, some spice, pepper.

Taste: Full pepper spice, lots of toffee and caramel.

Finish: Medium length. More chewy toffee continues.

Those STR casks work eh? Not really much sign that this is 3 years old, but not much sign of what the distillery character was meant to be either.

68/100

Thanks for reading!

English Whisky Review #1

Whisky Network Review #511

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Tamdhu 2008 Strictly Limited Review

Hi everyone,

Today's review is a very young whisky from another distillery I haven't reviewed before.

Tamdhu have gained a bit of recognition with new whiskies released in 2013, all of which I have yet to taste. This is an indie from Carn Mor's low end range, full of young whiskies from refill barrels.

Is there anything interesting to say about Tamdhu? Um, they're owned by the same group as Glengoyne and they use wooden washbacks. That's all I got.

 

Tamdhu 2008 Carn Mor Strictly Limited 46%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Light

Nose: Very young. Slightly burnt new make spirit, ethanol, spirity apple and pear, some orange, bubblegum, slightly metallic, slightly rubbery.

Taste: Spirity but fresh. Young apple and pear combo, going quite juicy and fresh with some building caramel, some spice coming out.

Finish: Medium length. New oak then some burnt notes.

7 year old. About as close to the distillate as you could get, despite that it isn't bad whisky, the juicy notes on the taste are quite nice.

61/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #448

Whisky Network Review #510

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Loch Lomond Original & Inchmurrin TBWC Batch 1 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Today I've got some Loch Lomond reviews, which is perhaps the ugly duckling of the scotch whisky industry. It's a complicated, perhaps misunderstood distillery that doesn't play by the rules but doesn't have the bad boy persona of Compass Box.

Loch Lomond has a few different types of stills. They have 6 Lomond stills with rectifying necks (Imagine a pot still with plates in), 2 continuous Coffey stills making 20 million litres a year, another Coffey still only using malted barely in it (which the SWA say is still grain whisky) and a pair of traditional pots stills.

Along with several different peating levels and yeast types, Loch Lomond is maybe the most adaptable distillery with a huge range of brands.

Is it any good? Well, it didn't have the best reputation in the world but people have been talking about some new heavily peated stuff, which is meant to be good. So it may be a distillery to keep an eye on.

Anyway, here's the two I've tried...

Loch Lomond Original 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Vanilla, cream soda, butter, malty, little burnt note- Burnt toffee, burnt malt, caramel.

Taste: Creamy/watery arrival, vanilla, toffee, caramel, burnt bitterness building with sour wood.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Burnt malt bitterness, a little watery.

New bottling 2015. Lightly peated apparently. Not really a nice one IMO, a bit weird and burnt.

62/100

Inchmurrin TBWC Batch 1 54.7%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Big ol' Sherry bomb. Lots of honey and orange, Christmas cake and spice, orange liqueur, brown sugar.

Taste: Full on sherry monster. Surprisingly easy at full strength, thick cream with loads of sherried sweetness, tonnes of orange and rich spice, orange chocolate and liqueur.

Finish: Long length. More orange with spices and oak lingering nicely.

My first TBWC. Not just a Boutique marketing whisky! According to internet, Inchmurrin is only made with whisky from the Lomond stills. This was lovely, like drinking some kind of orange dessert, but did fall apart with any water.

76/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #446-#447

Whisky Network Reviews #508-#509

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Tormore 16 Review

Hi everyone,

Tormore is one of the most beautiful distilleries you'll ever drive past, but you'll only ever drive past it because they don't do tours or have a shop.

It's been one of those distilleries that been all too happy to fly under the radar and even when official bottlings started creeping out, they weren't very available.

Tormore uses Non-water cooled Purifiers on both their wash and spirit stills to give the spirit a lighter touch to the style. As far as I know, it's the only distillery to use that type of purifier on both stills and Glen Grant are the only other distillery to use purifiers on both wash and spirit stills. So it should be quite unique character-wise.

Of course, I had to hunt down a sample to find out what the stuff tasted like.

Tormore 16 48%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Full of pastry and fresh fruit. Cinnamon, apple pie, aromatic juicy pear, spiced orange, honey, some herbs, pine needles, aniseed, a bit of dry oak.

Water: More deep and mellow with honey, sweet floral and blood orange. More vanilla and pastry after a bit.

Taste: Sweet, honey, juicy orange, spiced orange, cinnamon building with ginger and oak. Lots of coffee beans into the finish.

Water: Much more gentle but a little watery, a green sappy note then lots of dark chocolate and oak. Very oaky into the finish. Becomes unbalanced.

Finish: Medium length. Spiced, coffee beans and prickling oak.

Looking at it, I would have said Sherry from the colour but apparently this is exclusively from Bourbon barrels, must be 1st fill unless there is colour added. Doesn't quite have the balance I would expect from 16 years, or the mouthfeel I'd want from 48% though.

73/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #445

Whisky Network Review #507

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Fettercairn Fior Review

Hi everyone,

Today I’ve got a distillery I haven’t reviewed before; Fettercairn. Now I hadn’t heard good things about Fettercairn, so wasn’t expecting huge things from this NAS bottling.

It’s owned by Whyte & Mackay, who also own Jura and Dalmore. This is perhaps the runt of that litter, not having a huge marketing effort like the others.

From 1995-2009 they also used steel condensers, and the style seems to lean towards a heavier character to the whisky. Although there isn’t a huge amount of info available, it seems that the spirit stills are also externally cooled by running cool water down the sides of the copper (You can see it here)… Interesting stuff and something I left out of my condenser article.

Anyway, let’s see how this one tastes.

Fettercairn Fior 42%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Sweet and malty. Roasted nut, hazelnut, cashew nut, Sherry, raisin, pastry, vanilla, some spice and oak. Roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate coming out.

Taste: Sweet and gentle arrival, becoming very sweet with Sherry, raisin, pastry, vanilla, then much more bitter with burnt oak, green oak, building spice and tannins.

Finish: Medium length. Very bitter with dark chocolate and coffee.

Mature for NAS, despite that, it's a little disjointed and unbalanced on the taste.

68/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #444

Whisky Network Review #506

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Marks & Spencer 12yo Single Malts x3 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Today I’ve got 3 reviews that I did ages ago and totally forgot to put up.

I got a pack of 4 miniatures for Christmas, all Marks & Spencer’s (Supermarket in the UK) whiskies, with one blended whisky I’ve reviewed before and 3 single malts from different regions. All 12 years old, all 40% and all mystery malts. There is a clue given by M&S in that the Kenmore 5, the blended one, says that it comes from Burn Stewart, so the singles could be from their distilleries too.

Just to remind you, Burn Stewart own Bunnahabhain, Tobermory and Deanston distilleries. No Island whisky, so no Tobermory here.

M&S Speyside 12 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Much more heather honey Highland-Glenrothes style than Speyside. A little light Sherry in the background with a little sour cherry, oak and leather but there's some alcohol hiding anything else.

Taste: Soft arrival, sour cherry then Sherry cask raisins and some leather, good balance and the oak and spices build. There's some nice black pepper.

Finish: Medium length. A burst of that black pepper then some more Sherry.

Call me crazy but this tastes like Macallan/Glenrothes blend. Reminds me of the 1998 Macallan Speymalt. Label implies it's from a distillery on the river Spey. Also, great value for money.

69/100

M&S Highland 12 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Sour and floral Highlander. Green apple sour sweets with sugar, lots of pastry and bakery, slightly overcooked apple turnover, poached pear.

Taste: Soft then quite thin with some green apple and pastry coming through, some spice develops with sour oak. Ginger, peppery, some green sappy oak.

Finish: Medium length. Peppery oak and a little sour.

Deanston or Tullibardine IMO, more likely Deanston knowing Burn Stewart could be involved. Nicer nose than taste.

63/100

M&S Islay 12 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Funky with sour being the theme again. Dirty coal rag, diesel, over ripe yellow apples and Physalis dessert berries, salty and coastal notes are there but quite vague and in the background.

Taste: Those over ripe yellow apples first, some funky and dirty notes with coal and some soot, then a burst of yellow citrus, again those Physalis dessert berries, before some spice and oak.

Finish: Medium length. Still those Physalis dessert berries and some oak.

Quite unique notes here, and would be a really good one at 46% I think. If this isn't Bunna I WILL eat my hat.

67/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #441-#443

Whisky Network Reviews #503-#505

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?