Compass Box’s The General Blended Scotch Storms American Shores

Compass Box, headquartered in London, England, is well known for its unique blends of Scotch whiskies. One of its latest releases could very well be its most illustrious to date. Known as The General, this limited release offering is just now coming to American shores after seeing overseas releases in Europe late last year.

The General is described by Compass Box as being created from “two delicious and mysterious parcels of whisky that have been matured for 40 years and 33 years respectively.” As the story goes behind them, two different companies approached the blender “with similar stories: they each had several casks of Blended Scotch that had been blended at quite young ages” of both single malt and single grain whiskies before being laid down themselves to age. Tastings by Compass Box as they inspected the liquid revealed that some were aged in former American whisky casks and some in sherry casks.

Experimenting blending the two blends at different proportions, said Compass Box, yielded the final mix which is now been bottled at a cask strength of 53.4% ABV in to a total of just 1,698 bottles. Of these, only 550 are reserved for the United States and priced at around $300 each.

Tasting notes from Compass Box for The General indicate it has “aromas and flavors reminiscent of spices, dried fruits and old sherry wine character. The palate is very soft, a virtue of blending malt whisky with grain whisky, and the finish is very, very long.”