Jon Glaser does some for the masses and some for the whisky snoots. This one is for the snoots. Tobias intrigued me enough to purchase a couple of bottles for our member hour at Peatin’ Meetin’. It’s not easy to get as its SRP is set at $500, and is sold for hundreds over that. TatA is blended malt, which used to be called a vatted malt or pure malt, and means it’s all malt from multiple distilleries without any grain whisky. Technically we could call it a double malt as it is a product of Clynelish and Caol Ila. I’ll let them speak for themselves about what’s in the bottle:
“The expression is a blend of just over half 24-year-old malt whisky from Highland distillery Clynelish, which was aged in American oak hogsheads, and peaty whisky from Islay distillery Caol Ila “of a considerably older age”.”
Of course Compass Box being Compass box, they couldn’t just put on an ordinary label and give it an ordinary name. Since I don’t like repeating what has already been done, I’ll let our Scotch Club members tell you the story behind the name and label.
THE REVIEW
Nose: Intense. Potpourri in a lumberyard.
Palate: Fun and spunky. Damp antique furniture in a tropical environment with salted caramel. An oiliness coats your mouth and keeps it tingling as if a little electrical current is running for a full minute. The Clynelish definitely asserts itself in the first second before the Caol Ila says ‘howdy’ . You can’t stop chewing on this one. I felt like a dog licking peanut butter off the roof of my mouth. This one is old and refined, yet lively. It’s like an old gentleman dusted himself off to cut a rug at his granddaughter’s wedding.
