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Tomintoul / With a Peaty Tang.

Summary: 

COUNTRY/REGION: Scotland/Speyside.

CATEGORY: Single Malt.

DISTILLERY: Tomintoul.

BOTTLER: Distillery Bottling.

STRENGTH: 40% Vol.

Tomintoul distillery was founded by the whisky broking firms W&S Strong and Hay & MacLeod. In 1974, the number of stills were doubled from 2 to 4, when its first single malt was marketed. For a number of years Tomintoul Single Malt was renowned for its perfume shaped bottle. The distillery is 8 miles from Tomintoul village which is used by walkers and climbers as a base camp.

NOSE: takes me back to my early teens, spending schooldays working on a farm: pure farmyard with an earthy yet fruity punch. The sort of complex nose that almost makes you forget to drink the stuff…almost…;

TASTE: a gentle coating of vaguely sweet peat that multiplies in intensity; salivating yet chewy. Some liquorice and hickory notes make their drying mark;

FINISH: distinctly gristy and unusually dry for a smoky malt. Long, luscious and not a little oaky late on;

BALANCE: a bit more than a tang, believe me! Faultlessly clean distillate that revels in its unaccustomed peaty role. The age is confusing and appears mixed, with both young and older traits being evident.

AWARDS: 94 Points – Jim Murray's 2016 Whisky Bible.

Compass Box / Hedonism The Muse.

Summary: 

COUNTRY/REGION: Scotland.

CATEGORY: Blended Grain.

BOTTLER: Compass Box (CB).

BOTTLING SERIE: Limited Edition.

BOTTLED: 02.2018

NUMBER OF BOTTLES: 3060

STRENGTH: 53.3 % Vol.

SIZE: 700 ml.

The original Hedonism – Their first ever bottling – explored a brave new world of flavour previously uncharted in the world of Scotch. The world’s first Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, it was a whisky so unique that it created its own category.

Hedonism will always mean something extra to us and in the years following the original release in 2000, Compass Box have returned to the Hedonism concept on three further occasions – Hedonism Maximus, Hedonism 10th Anniversary and Hedonism Quindecimus.

They recently stumbled upon a single cask of exceptional aged grain whisky in the style of Hedonism and they knew it was time to revisit the concept for a 5th time.

Sometimes, the character of a single cask of whisky will stir our minds and inspire us to complement it to create something even more compelling. That is the case with this limited edition Hedonism whisky. We call it The Muse.

The name refers to the exceptional cask we discovered — a vatting of very old grain whiskies from different distilleries, combined many years ago and left to age together in American oak. The sellers of this cask did not know the provenance of the distilleries, but that didn’t matter to us. Its taste was remarkable, with great depth, and very much in the spectrum of flavours — honey, vanilla, pastry cream — of a Hedonism whisky.

The Muse is also a nod to the woman portrayed at the centre of our Hedonism labels – the first woman, as far as we know, ever to feature on a Scotch whisky label and the image we featured on our first-ever bottling.

Women make up the majority of our team here at Compass Box, which is unusual in our industry. This diversity of perspective makes us, I believe, a better business.

John Glaser, Whiskymaker.

TASTING NOTES: Aromas and flavours reminiscent of vanilla, marzipan and honey.  Full on the palate, round and with a very sweet impression.  Very long finish that echoes the vanilla and marzipan.