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Compass Box: The Story of the Spaniard

Writer's picture: S&PS&P

Updated: Mar 9, 2021

Simon and Scott checking in from the S&P crew. We split on a Compass Box sampler with 50mLs of Peat Monster, Spice Tree, and Story of the Spaniard. We'll review them one at a time as we get together.


Starting off we've got Story of the Spaniard. 43% ABV. $80-$90 CAD depending where you look.


We sniff around:


Scott: That's a bouquet right there. Lots of floral notes.


Simon: It's got a fruity sweetness to it too, and a malty cereal, and a mustiness to it.


Scott: yea like really old wood.


This is a full aroma, balanced, decently complex nose. There's an array of flowers. It's got a Highland smell to it with the sweet cereal. Not sure what the make up of this blend is but we're gonna guess mostly Highland.


We cheers.


Simon: very nice. It really evolves on the palate. Starts off sweet, then it gets into a cereal mustiness, and ends on a spicy finish.


Scott: I get the sweet on the beginning. There's a few things happening.


Simon: I get a little a roasted vegetable on the finish.


Scott: This is rich. Coats the mouth nicely. Great mouthfeel.


Simon: I'm pretty impressed, it's fruity, it's got a nice depth to it, nice complexity. Right when the spice hits it's got a deserty feel to it, some kind of baked goodies. I've got no idea what white pepper is but I've seen people include it in their reviews and this spice tastes like I should call it white pepper.


Scott: The finish leaves you wanting more. This is a great experience.


Simon: This reminds me of Johnnie Walker Green, but it's got a notch on it in terms of depth and complexity. Near the end of the glass there's a full caramel butterscotch desert experience.


Reviews: Scott starts us off. This is a hard one to rate on the first cup. Some scotches you need to have it 3 or 4 times before you can do it justice with a review, and this is one of those. He's landing on 85 for now but will look for a bottle one day. Simon is also going to look around. Again this leaves him wanting another cup to keep digging into it. This remind him of the Dalwhinnie but way more depth. It could have some in the blend. Anyway he lands on 82, but something he's going to want to get back to and fine tune that.


Overall: So we did some research after the review, and Compass Box shows you the full breakdown of each 3 batches on their website. They picked scotches mostly aged in Sherry and Spannish red wine. There was some fruity sweetness on this, but we really didn't pin it down as a wine or sherry cask. As we expected most of the blend is Highland with some Speysides in there. I see a few Deanstons, a Highland blend, and then ''a distillery near the town of Aberlour''. See here. Despite the stats, don't expect much of a sherry bomb here but this is a great bottle, great value, and we recommend you give this a shot.


Cheers!

The S&P Crew.

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