Compass Box Oak Cross Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)
The latest vatted malt from master innovator John Glaser is a blend of Highland malt whiskies, led by the delicate, sweet, lightly malty Teaninich, from the village of Alness. For complexity and balance malts from other distilleries are included from the villages of Brora (for fruitiness) and Carron (for weight). All the whiskies are aged approximately ten years and have matured in a variety American oak casks. The whiskies are vatted together in a stainless steel tank and then returned into Compass Box’s proprietary “Oak Cross” casks, with new French oak heads.
The story behind these unique casks is an interesting one, retold here by Glaser himself. “As you may know, we work with a small mill in France that makes some of the highest quality cooperage oak in the world. It was our work with this mill that inspired an innovative idea that led to the creation of our malt whisky “Oak Cross”. At COMPASS BOX, we love the soft, sweet, vanilla-tinged character that aging our whiskies in American oak casks provides. However, our discoveries of the complex characters that aging with the best quality, new French oak provides have captivated us for several years now. What if we tried to get the best of both worlds? We were working on a new malt whisky, intended to be a whisky with finesse and elegance, intended to have a lovely, subtle richness (no peatiness) that would make it a real all-rounder. To achieve the flavour and richness we were looking for, we began experimenting by blending malt whiskies aged in American White oak casks with malt whiskies that had gone through a second maturation with new French Sessile oak. We were hoping the whiskies matured in French oak, with their spice and dried fruit character, would complement the lighter characters of the American oak-aged whiskies. And the results were delicious. But we didn’t stop there…What , (we thought), if we simply had our coopers create casks made of new French oak heads and American oak bodies. And this is what we did. We found after several months in casks of this type, the malt whiskies took on a lovely, subtle extra layer of flavour. Et Voila! We had created our own proprietary type of cask. We’ve been calling these our “oak cross” casks from the beginning. And the name has stuck!”
The result is a malt whisky with a soft palate and flavour notes of clove and vanilla, accenting a sweet maltiness and subtle fruit character. Bottled at 43%, Compass Box Oak Cross is not chill filtered. All natural colour.
No tasting notes available.
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