Compass Box Flaming Heart 2018

Review is of a sample kindly provided by @RianC. Dram has been poured about 30 mins before I started sipping.

Nose

Really nice nose. Campfire smoke and very sweet peat that comes across as an apple pie (Hence the review title). Some lime, wet straw.

Palate

Arrival is quick and goes from a peaty smoke to a dry ashy smoke. Not so fruity on the palate. Although there is a slight apple flavoured meringue note. Some buttered toast. Finish is very long and drying with about seven different types of smoke! If there are sherry casks in here I'm not getting them. Nonetheless a great whisky. If this is mostly Caol Ila I need to buy more Caol Ila. I've only had the standard 12 and that always seems a bit muted to me at 43%. But this is lovely. Peaty enough to satisfy a peat freak. But also just fruity enough that someone who wasn't so enamoured with peaty drams might still enjoy it. Although I don't know if it's my palate deceiving me or the dram changing in the glass but the longer I sip it the less fruity and more smoky it is?

If this was an Ardbeg release named after the distillery tractor or something it would sell out on release and be on the resale market for £250 a bottle. People would write eulogies to it no doubt. This isn't a eulogy. But I did enjoy this

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