garbanzobean Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 SKU's regular TTB scrapes has yielded some new Compass Box releases: Spice Tree Extravaganza https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/viewColaDetails.do?action=publicFormDisplay&ttbid=16208001000068 Three Year Old Deluxe Whisky https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/viewColaDetails.do?action=publicFormDisplay&ttbid=16210001000101 The three year old is probably a pass for me. The Clynelish + peated whisky thing gets old, even if this is Talisker instead of Laphroaig or Caol Ila. The Spice Tree Extravaganza will be a buy as long as the price is reasonable. Regular Spice Tree is on sale at a local store next week and will be on deck to replace Tobermory 10 as my give to company/put in the occasional mixed drink whisky. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryT Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Hmm . . . hoping someone will catch Mr. Glaser and get more details on the ages of the TYOD (because it isn't illegal in THIS country for him to share the ages; I still have the vanity card on Luxury that gives that breakdown). But depending upon price, I'll probably try to get both. Haven't been disappointed in any LE he's put out (although have loved some a lot more than others). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry in WashDC Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Eric - thanks. When the Montgomery County MD ABC store closed last month (or was it June), I picked up a Spice Tree (and an obscene amount of other stuff) for 20% off MSRP. I'm not really a scotch fan, but I like this Compass Box line (and absolutely love the Hedonsim line). Like you, if it is "reasonable" if that term can be applied to scotch whisky, I will try one. Gary, I am guessing that, when Tom Glaser is ready to ship the TYODW, he'll post the info card on his website. As you note, to fail to do so would be grossly inconsistent with his admirable push for full disclosure in the scotch market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted August 14, 2016 Author Share Posted August 14, 2016 11 hours ago, Harry in WashDC said: Eric - thanks. When the Montgomery County MD ABC store closed last month (or was it June), I picked up a Spice Tree (and an obscene amount of other stuff) for 20% off MSRP. I'm not really a scotch fan, but I like this Compass Box line (and absolutely love the Hedonsim line). Like you, if it is "reasonable" if that term can be applied to scotch whisky, I will try one. Gary, I am guessing that, when Tom Glaser is ready to ship the TYODW, he'll post the info card on his website. As you note, to fail to do so would be grossly inconsistent with his admirable push for full disclosure in the scotch market. Compass Box generally makes good stuff, though I've enjoyed their regular lineup more than their one offs. I love Great King Street Artists Blend, but price is getting in the way of that one. At $30 it's a great deal and my favorite blend, at $40+ it's in 12 year single malt on sale territory (being next to Montgomery County and Pine Orchard Liquors, there's always something) and I think way too expensive. Not sure why I can't find it for $30 anymore. As far as their one offs go, Flaming Heart 2010 has been my favorite so far. I took a pass on FH2015, most of the other limited releases of the past couple years, and The General though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 On 8/13/2016 at 6:36 PM, Harry in WashDC said: Eric - thanks. When the Montgomery County MD ABC store closed last month (or was it June), I picked up a Spice Tree (and an obscene amount of other stuff) for 20% off MSRP. I'm not really a scotch fan, but I like this Compass Box line (and absolutely love the Hedonsim line). Like you, if it is "reasonable" if that term can be applied to scotch whisky, I will try one. Gary, I am guessing that, when Tom Glaser is ready to ship the TYODW, he'll post the info card on his website. As you note, to fail to do so would be grossly inconsistent with his admirable push for full disclosure in the scotch market. While I am pretty sure John Glaser would like to post full details of what he makes on the bottle label and his website for all of his releases the thugs that govern scotch (mostly controlled by the big producers of the world like Diageo as I understand it) prevent him from doing so on the label, advertising materials and his website. Many bottles once had details of components listed on the website but they can't be posted that way now. And the challenge of getting the rules changed is quite daunting as he was kind enough to explain to me a while back. It just isn't likely practical for him as a small producer to do a separate label for the US and even if he did I suspect he would still incur the wrath of the big boys. I will certainly be looking to try both as soon as they are available. The 3yo is indeed Clynelish and Talisker but I think the advantage here would be the quality of the barrels used for the 3yo component since this was new make that he was able to age presumably entirely under his own control. There is of course no way to know for sure without trying it! I haven't heard any prices for ST Extravaganza yet so I am hoping with the rest of you for a price that is not too much of an extravaganza while knowing it will almost certainly be much higher than the regular Spice Tree (which is one of my favorite "bargains" in scotch I might add and something I often recommend to those interested in trying scotch that isn't super expensive). I am hoping tor a more modest price on the "3yo Deluxe". And if I get a chance to ask him about the age of the components of ST Extravaganza and the 3yo Deluxe I won't hesitate! Whether he will tell me is another story... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 On 8/14/2016 at 6:39 AM, garbanzobean said: As far as their one offs go, Flaming Heart 2010 has been my favorite so far. I took a pass on FH2015, most of the other limited releases of the past couple years, and The General though. While I liked the FH2010 too I have to say that, while subtly different, both the FH2012 and the most recent FH2015 were also pretty darn good! And at around $100, perhaps less in some places, it was a fairly decent value as well. The 2010 had the usual Clynelish/Caol Ila blend with a bit of Ledaig I believe thrown in and a few other distilleries. The 2012 was a bit of a departure with Laphroaig (I think) instead of Caol Ila and also a bit of sherry influence. The 2015 has a pretty good chunk of 30 old Caol Ila (over 25% by report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted August 15, 2016 Author Share Posted August 15, 2016 Multiquoting seems to be getting me into trouble lately, so I'll just do it old skool: 1.) My HOPE is that Spice Tree Extravaganza will be at around the $90-$120 pricepoint. That is roughly what most of their other tribute releases seem to go for. If it's more than that, I'm unlikely to buy it. 2.) FH2012 is indeed very good, and incidentally could still be found in MD for around $70 last I checked. Could finally be sold out now. I enjoyed my bottle of it, but liked the fruitier profile of the 2010 more in a SBS. Also, I strongly prefer Caol Ila to Laphroaig in most scenarios, but that is personal taste. Laphroaig just isn't my favorite distillery these days, blended or by itself. I expect I'll come back around to it at some point though. I used to really love it. 3.) I will probably get around to FH2015. There's plenty of it on shelves around here, and it's supposedly very good. It's just that it's coming in at $125 around here, which is a big higher than I like to pay for Compass Box blends. I seem to end up tasting a lot of them and thinking "I'd love this at $60." Come to think of it, I believe we've had almost this exact conversation before, and I think I was even using numbered bullets. STE is an exception because it sounds pretty unique for them instead of Clynelish + Peated whisky (it's good, just getting old for me). Oh, and Talisker 18 is on sale for $79 right now at a store near me, and I'm getting the urge to open my last bottle of it, so I might have to buy a couple replacements. Which is eating into my Compass Box money. Finally, Kilkerran 12 just came out, and I'm having a lot of trouble stopping myself from having one of those plus maybe a TWE Glenfarclas 103 shipped over here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portwood Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 9 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said: While I am pretty sure John Glaser would like to post full details of what he makes on the bottle label and his website for all of his releases the thugs that govern scotch ... The 3yo is indeed Clynelish and Talisker but I think the advantage here would be the quality of the barrels used for the 3yo component since this was new make that he was able to age presumably entirely under his own control. There is of course no way to know for sure without trying it! I'm as big a fan of Compass Box as the next guy but I don't buy into the david v goliath branding Mr Glaser engages in. I think he wants everyone to believe he wants full disclosure but the reality is what he wants is the ability to practice full disclosure when it suits. On the 3 year deluxe ... I think the 3 year old component is virtually irrelevant. If you look closely (description on the back label), the 3yo is a mere 1% of the blend! I doubt it adds anything flavour-wise, its in the blend for marketing purposes - to poke fun at the rules :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryT Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 8 hours ago, portwood said: I'm as big a fan of Compass Box as the next guy but I don't buy into the david v goliath branding Mr Glaser engages in. I think he wants everyone to believe he wants full disclosure but the reality is what he wants is the ability to practice full disclosure when it suits. On the 3 year deluxe ... I think the 3 year old component is virtually irrelevant. If you look closely (description on the back label), the 3yo is a mere 1% of the blend! I doubt it adds anything flavour-wise, its in the blend for marketing purposes - to poke fun at the rules :-) I've only met Mr. Glaser a couple times, but he seemed very genuine in his desires for transparency. He has made the point that he doesn't think it should be a requirement - and for their stable blends, if there is variation from batch to batch - it might be problematic to try to give precise information. But I don't think he has nefarious intentions (while recognizing that he's a businessman who believes transparency helps his business). On the 3 yr, I think that's exactly his point - showing the youngest age only is silly, but thems the rules. The 2015 Flaming Heart vanity card shows the youngest component was 7 yrs (despite that being 10%, while 24% was 20yr and 27% was 30 yr). I can't seem to keep this on-hand at the local price point ($95), but if they said "Try this 7 yr blend for $95", I might never have bought one. Then again . . . he's got me ready to pay probably half-again more for a 3 yr blend LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 4 hours ago, GaryT said: I've only met Mr. Glaser a couple times, but he seemed very genuine in his desires for transparency. He has made the point that he doesn't think it should be a requirement - and for their stable blends, if there is variation from batch to batch - it might be problematic to try to give precise information. But I don't think he has nefarious intentions (while recognizing that he's a businessman who believes transparency helps his business). On the 3 yr, I think that's exactly his point - showing the youngest age only is silly, but thems the rules. The 2015 Flaming Heart vanity card shows the youngest component was 7 yrs (despite that being 10%, while 24% was 20yr and 27% was 30 yr). I can't seem to keep this on-hand at the local price point ($95), but if they said "Try this 7 yr blend for $95", I might never have bought one. Then again . . . he's got me ready to pay probably half-again more for a 3 yr blend LOL Having had the luxury of spending a bit more time one on one with John I agree with Gary. Does it help his business? Sure, probably does. But I think he is sincere in his belief that there should be more transparency in Scotch and in whiskey in general. He has generally framed his transparency debate as an option, not a requirement but I don't think (could be wrong!) that he would have a problem with a requirement for full disclosure. While it might complicate the labeling of some of his ongoing "Signature" line I think they are all pretty much done as batches and the batch information could be fit on a label. 13 hours ago, portwood said: On the 3 year deluxe ... I think the 3 year old component is virtually irrelevant. If you look closely (description on the back label), the 3yo is a mere 1% of the blend! I doubt it adds anything flavour-wise, its in the blend for marketing purposes - to poke fun at the rules :-) I think this is likely to be spot on. Would be hard to imagine the 1% of 3yo whisky having a dramatic impact on the 99% of older whisky. That said, I am encouraged to hear that the whisky he has control of for aging is starting to come of age, even if we still have a long way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryT Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Compass Box has released more details - sort of. Their lawyers provided them a route to help respond to the whisky geeks (like us!) with more details, without getting into trouble. Below is a link on it for more details. I did email them, and received a response (with those details!), but the response asked that we not post them in any forums, social media, etc (basically "for your eyes"). I was looking for a forum that might be restricted to just SB members where this info might fit, but didn't see one that lined up well (most are in the "bourbon" area) - and don't want them to get in any crap for posting in a forum that the general public can access http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2016/09/compass-box-finds-loophole-in-scotch-label-regulations/ They responded fairly quickly, although I hit them up early in the day (although I'm sure they have the response at the ready to copy/paste). Because they don't want to be promoting the ages/components, the details don't come across in the pretty infographics they had before - but the details are there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 I too sent them an email in reply to the one they sent, but I have yet to receive a response. If someone wanted to, I don't know, drop me a PM with the details, I wouldn't be offended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Incidentally, it looks like Spice Tree Extravaganza is going to be at around the $125 mark, and the 3 year deluxe will be in the $250-$300 range. Or so MM&F poster think, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvd99 Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Loved the FH2015 - just picked up a spare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 On 9/26/2016 at 7:47 PM, garbanzobean said: Incidentally, it looks like Spice Tree Extravaganza is going to be at around the $125 mark, and the 3 year deluxe will be in the $250-$300 range. Or so MM&F poster think, anyway. I talked to John Glaser at Whiskyfest SF and the components of both sounded (and tasted... ) fabulous! 20+ year old blend as I recall for the "3yo") but of course it was Whiskyfest and I don't remember details and I didn't write it down so I am not surprised at the price. Kind of pleasantly surprised if that is accurate for the ST Extravaganza as the components in that are a big step up as best I remember from regular ST which is already a favorite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 30 minutes ago, tanstaafl2 said: I talked to John Glaser at Whiskyfest SF and the components of both sounded (and tasted... ) fabulous! 20+ year old blend as I recall for the "3yo") but of course it was Whiskyfest and I don't remember details and I didn't write it down so I am not surprised at the price. Kind of pleasantly surprised if that is accurate for the ST Extravaganza as the components in that are a big step up as best I remember from regular ST which is already a favorite. Whiskynotes reports €130 and €230 price points. Compass Box tends to discount slightly for the three tier system, so I am hoping for $125-$150 and $250+. http://www.whiskynotes.be/2016/whisky-news/compass-box-spice-tree-extravaganza-highland-park-fire-edition/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 Well we can only hope it holds close to those price ranges. I would probably err to the higher end these days. John noted the Talisker is something they almost never get access to which makes this cheeky "3yo" pretty unique in the CB family. As I noted I seem to remember both components were north of 20 years but I can't remember for sure. I know I liked it though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 10 minutes ago, tanstaafl2 said: Well we can only hope it holds close to those price ranges. I would probably err to the higher end these days. John noted the Talisker is something they almost never get access to which makes this cheeky "3yo" pretty unique in the CB family. As I noted I seem to remember both components were north of 20 years but I can't remember for sure. I know I liked it though! Give me some time to get home and I'll PM you the ages of both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kpiz Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 The 3yo Deluxe appears to be available for pre-order in the UK for £184, which is $225. A little cheaper than expected although this could just be due to the very favorable £/$ exchange rate right now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kpiz Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 Looks like these will be hitting the West Coast any day now. K&L has priced the Spice Tree Extravaganza at $139.99 and the 3yo Deluxe at $279.99. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 (edited) 23 hours ago, Kpiz said: Looks like these will be hitting the West Coast any day now. K&L has priced the Spice Tree Extravaganza at $139.99 and the 3yo Deluxe at $279.99. Wow, a good bit cheaper than I saw the 3yo here. it just hit shelves at north of $300. Still waiting on the Spice Tree to arrive. A little worried what it will cost! Edited November 4, 2016 by tanstaafl2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRich Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Wow, a good bit cheaper than I saw the 3yo here. it just hit shelves at north of $300. Still waiting on the Spice Tree to arrive. A little worried what it will cost! 3yr at $330 and the STE is $125. It's already landed in the larger stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Just now, BigRich said: 3yr at $330 and the STE is $125. It's already landed in the larger stores. Thanks, I will keep an eye out. Really liked the STE even more than the 3yo which surprised me at the time. That price is also encouraging! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted November 5, 2016 Author Share Posted November 5, 2016 I am bracing myself for a $150 pricetag in most of Maryland. Hopefully it will be $100-$120 when it hits the MoCo inventory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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