Compass Box Spice Tree (2020) Review

Strength: 46% ABV

Purchased: Early 2020 in the U.S. (CA)

Price: $60 + tax

Age/Casks: Blend. Details from Compass Box

Date of Review:  November 14 2020

Score: 6. Above Average. Skip to the Review

From the Archives: FTA is a series of tasting notes and reviews that I had hand written earlier on in my whisky journey. These notes may not reflect how I would feel today, but represent my attempts to begin verbalizing what I was experiencing. I chose to hand write these because that seemed like a more intimate and focused effort. It also made me slow down a bit to think, write, and shake off any writing cramps between sips. In the spirit of full disclosure, I did add some text to make the reading experience a bit easier. I hope these ‘reviews’ will provide some context in my journey and will provide some reference points for my evolving palate over time.

The Review

Details: Bottle was ⅕ full at review time. Open for less than 1 year.

Nose: Malted vanilla ice cream, green apples, ginger

Palate: Cotton candy up front and darkens in sweetness into a surprisingly salty caramel. Then comes the promised spices of clove and cinnamon.

Finish: The spiciness lingers with a gentle warmness. A hint of black pepper emerges. Medium long finish that coats the mouth.

With Water: Initially the nose turns more spike-y with a good amount of white pepper. Eventually, it settles and a honey note accompanies the original vanilla. Some sultanas emerge as well. The palate is fresh and bright, moving away from the initial sweetness of the neat dram into something more crisp and refreshing, a la lemon lime soda. There is less of a journey to be had here, but the experience becomes more cohesive overall, showcasing an effervescent citric but malt forward sweetness with a dash of ginger. Some caramel remains but the salt is less obvious. The finish feels like it suffered the most, with a noticeable drop in intensity, but it still manages to stick around for a while.

Overall: I recall that when I first purchased this bottle I was very early on in my whisky journey, and upon first taste I was amazed at “how much was going on.” Funnily enough, I remember posting that exact line on a local whisky Facebook group, and this was probably one of the first times I ever posted an “opinion” publicly. By the time I reviewed and finished that bottle later the same year, I recall still thoroughly enjoying it, although the wonderment had probably worn off a bit. It does seem to be a whisky that was an excellent option for my first attempts at truly putting together some tasting notes on paper, as I felt it was fairly easy to read even then. In my notes, I rated this whisky an 8.5/10 and noted I thought it to be a high value bottle. I believe if I were to rescore this using my contemporary system, this whisky would receive a 6/10 and would be considered a fair value. Unfortunately, this was before I started saving a sample from my bottles so I do not currently have any to re-review at this time. Score: 6/10. Above Average.

Whisky Scoring Guide