Compass Box Enlightenment a Smart Blended Scotch Whisky

Compass Box is an independent Scotch whisky bottler known for striving to be as transparent as possible for consumers. It recently launched the so-called Scotch Whisky Transparency Campaign to update regulations which currently keep producers from sharing details of the component whiskies’ ages that go into their blends.

Though this change has yet to happen, they are still revealing as much as they can in one of their newest bottles aptly named Enlightenment, both for the Age of Enlightenment and sharing of information on what’s in the whisky mix.

The new Compass Box Enlightenment is a limited edition expression, consisting of just 5,922 bottles. This blended malt whisky’s distillery make up is: 36.7% from Glentauchers, 10.8% from Balblair and 4.3% from Mortlach distilleries combined with 48.2% whisky from Clynelish, all aged in a first-fill bourbon cask.

Enlightenment is bottled at 46% ABV and is both non-chill filtered and of natural color. You can find official tasting notes for it at the end of this story. As for pricing you can expect to pay £60, or about $90 USD when it becomes available globally at month’s end.

“By law, we’re not allowed to tell customers the age of the component whiskies used to create Enlightenment,” said Compass Box founder John Glaser in a statement. “We can tell you that you will find a bright apple and pear quality on the nose, soft spice and light citrus fruit notes on the palate with a mouth-watering finish full of an alluring apple peel waxiness.  We can tell you the casks the whisky was matured in – but crucially we can’t tell you how long for.”

“We were attracted to certain themes from the Age of Enlightenment – the questioning mind-set that epitomises that era, the way the traditional orthodoxy was challenged and broken down through logic rather than brute force. People will draw their own conclusions about the name but let’s just say it seemed a fitting one for us.”

Fresh, vibrant and uplifting with a mouthfeel that is moreish and mouth-watering. On the nose you will find bright apple and pear, vanilla cream and light violet; on the palate soft spice, gentle citric notes and more of that uplifting orchard fruit character.