Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Whisky Discovery #94

Compass Box The Peat Monster (46% abv)
Blended Malt Whisky
Circa £37.00 70cl

The Peat Monster
For the fifth Compass Box whisky and the fourth of their Signature range we discovered 'The Peat Monster’

For those who love big, rich, smoky-peaty whiskies, this is for you! Peat Monster combines smoky and peaty single malts from the island of Islay and the Isle of Mull with rich, medium-peated Speyside whisky. Aged in a mixture of first-fill and refill American oak casks. The result is a balanced, highly drinkable peaty blended malt Scotch whisky.

What makes it fit perfectly into the Compass Box house style is the balance of richness and subtle sweetness that the casks of Speyside malt provide to the smoky peaty Islay and island malts. This is the great benefit of combining single malts from different distilleries; they are not limited to the produce of one distillery and can create layers of complexity.

For recent batches, they have introduced even more complexity by adding some south shore Islay malt and island malt to enhance the peatiness and earthiness. As with all of their whiskies, several months of marrying before bottling allow the flavours of each of the whiskies to knit together, before being bottle at 46% abv. It is not chill filtered and naturally coloured

So what did I think?
WOW! This was just fantastic and I loved it! The whisky that started me off on this journey was a Caol Ila, and the first bottle I bought was a Laphroaig, both Islay malts, I love peaty whiskies! A Peaty, smoky malt with hints of fruitiness; a balanced whisky with great depth and complexity This was my favourite of the Compass Box whiskies and I went back for seconds after trying the last Compass Box whisky we tried that afternoon. I am sure that this one will be on my shelf in the very near future.

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