Compass Box - Just Ask

In the spring of 2016 Compass Box started a campaign for more transparency in Scotch whisky after they had to remove the full recipe of all components of two of their blends (you can read everything about that campaign here)

Fast forward half a year and not much  has changed and Compass Box has now ended their drive for more transparency for now.

But with the release of two new bottlings the company has also found a solution for their intent to provide the consumer all the information that they want. As difficult the problem seemed as simple is the solution: Just ask them. The regulations of the SWA forbid them to acticely promote another age statement than the youngest component of the blend. But if you just ask them by writing a mail or on social media they are free to provide you all the information they want to. 

I only see one problem and that is that you can't be 100% sure if the provided informations are true because I think what really matters, legally that is, are the informations on the label. Nevertheless I am sure that Compass Box won't provide wrong information or something but it's just the same as if you go to visit a distillery and they tell you something that isn't written on the label. You can only be 100% sure about the information on the label but Compass Box would also provide those information on the label if they could, wouldn't they?

The new releases are a blended malt called "Three Years Deluxe" which is a perfect example of the problem with current regulations. The blend contains 0.4% 3yo malt whisky produced near the village of Brora (it must be Clynelish), 90.3% malt whisky from the same distillry, but "considerably older" and 9.3% malt whisky from the Isle of Skye (Talisker).

The other new release is a blended malt called "Spice Tree Extravaganza" which marks 10 years since the inaugural version of the Spice Tree had to be discontinued because of the use of inner staves made of a special French oak. A second version of the Spice Tree was released later that used the same oak as cask heads. The Extravaganza comes at 46% ABV and contains older components than the core range and also has some Sherry influence. 

If you want to know the ages of the components go and ask them

Slainte, U