Compass Box The Muse Review

Hi everyone,

With the release of Jane Walker and BrewDog’s Pink IPA causing a bit of stir in the drinks world recently, initiating many a debate, now comes Compass Box’s attempt at jumping on the bandwagon celebrating Women in the industry without accidently insulting them and looking plain ridiculous.

To be fair, they seem to have done a slightly better job and are just generally more likable than the fat cats over at Diageo. Not to mention there’s some genuinely different and great whisky in the bottle.

So this a special edition of Hedonism blended grain, based off an old butt they found that contained some cool but unkownish grain whiskies, nicknamed the ‘Muse’ cask. They blended it with some other grains to make up this special edition, celebrating International Women’s Day and that there are more women working at Compass Box than men.

The price? Eh, maybe don’t worry about it…

 

Compass Box Hedonism ‘The Muse’ 53.3%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Beautifully tropical, the old Invergordon really shines, integrated is the name of the game here, complex, dried coconut and vanilla, worn leather. Patches of clean ethanol over time.

Taste: Perfect arrival, beautiful fruit, oak then comes in with some ginger snap spice, drier, still fresh though with orange and leather, so soft and delicate.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Dried coconut and vanilla, spice box, a bit less complex here with the ginger taking over.

Very old grain whisky (around 39 years I heard) based on the 'muse' cask. Initially I gave this 88 and was hugely impressed by what the grain whisky has gained but after a bit of time the ethanol on the nose starts poking out. Steep price of course (tentacle crowns are expensive after all!), but the best grain I’ve tried by a long, long way.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #594

Whisky Network Review #704

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

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 I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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