Compass Box Flaming Heart
(Vatted) Malt Scotch Whisky
Limited Release #FH16 MMVII
48.9% abv
£40
$80(USD)
Fireworks galore last night. In fact it has been going on for a month. Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Night and hopefully now the nightly display is over. The pop and fizzes bring to mind cracking knuckles and reminds me of an email I received from a man who wanted to know what whisky I would recommend for his arthritis-suffering sister. Before you panic, it was her doctor who endorsed the treatment, not me. I just offered recommendations of rich sipping whiskies. I then got to poking around and was amazed to find how alcohol seems to have the privilege of being the cure AND cause of almost every disease, ailment and sickness!
"Ah, beer. The cause and solution to all of life's problems."- Homer Simpson
The good news is that the current consensus seems to be that moderate intake of alcohol can both prevent against arthritis and slow the effect of rheumatoid arthritis. So enjoy every drop of the Water of Life, Adrienne, the prescription is a winner.
Right, to the whisky of the day, the daily dram, the morning malt...
This is the second release of Flaming Heart (we had the first back at Malt Mission #12) and the good news is that this time it will be available beyond Europe. Like the first release, this is made up of malt whiskies (Clynelish, Linkwood, Caol Ila) that have matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks and then undergone a secondary maturation in new toasted French oak casks. The result of peated and non-peated whisky, some of the best blended ingredients in the industry, combined with skill and exposed to new oak has created a unique array of flavours unlike anything else out there. Doesn't mean it will be to everyone's liking, but those who like it like it a lot and the whole process is yet more evidence that John Glaser is a leading innovator in the world of whisky.
TASTING NOTES:
Lots of vanilla, cloves, freshly baked goods. Finger paints, peat, and putty. Balloons. Some boiled pork, too.
White grapes, cinnamon, pepper, and peat smoke. Yoghurt and toasty woodiness, too. Long but gentle finish of wood, tobacco and a whiff of peat.
SUMMARY:
Quite a different mouthfeel to the first edition, so far as my memory is accurate. Great, assertive flavours excited by the abv% and amplified by the oak and careful combination of the some of the best malt whiskies in Scotland. Perhaps a bit punchy to the new whisky drinker, but wonderfully easy drinking with a drop of water and enough complexity to stimulate debate among connoisseurs.
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