New Bottle Highlight Series: Compass Box Crimson Casks Blended Scotch Whisky

I’m broadening this series to include highlights of not only newly acquired bottles but also newly opened bottles, either for the first time or new replacement bottles (including initial tasting notes thoughts and impressions on them).

I’ve had this bottle for a while and have been waiting for a special occasion to crack it open and a fantastic first two weeks of teaching a great group of graduate students is more than enough to fulfill that. Teaching and helping them develop professionally for the next stages in their careers is both an honor and a privilege. Their integrity and dedication to service is humbling and a welcome breath of fresh air from too many people in their age range who are the opposite and whose notion of “exertion” is playing video games for hours and getting drunk.

Compass Box has made a name for itself as a scotch malt whisky blending house founded by American John Glaser in 2000; he stepped down as chief executive and whisky maker for the brand in May 2024 but remains a shareholder.

Bottled at 92 proof (46% ABV), Crimson Casks is non-chill filtered, not colored, and has no age statement. It is a blend of eight scotch single malts from a variety of distilleries including Glen Moray, “a distillery near the town of Aberlour” (probably Aberlour), Teaninich Distillery, and Benrinnes Distillery. Four of those eight single malts are aged in first-fill Oloroso Sherry casks; one is aged in a first-fill sherry cask (the exact type of sherry isn’t specified); one is aged in a refill Spanish red wine barrique; one is aged in a heavy toast custom-made French Oak barrel; and one was aged in a first-fill American White Oak ex-bourbon barrel. Oloroso Sherry cask-aged single malts make up 66.3% of the Crimson Casks blend and that is unmistakable in both the aroma and flavor profiles.

Very preliminary tasting notes include aromas and flavors of cherries, red fruit jam, plums, raisins, red wine-poached orchard fruits, baking spices (clove, cardamom, light cinnamon), dark chocolate mixed with toffee and nuts, black pepper, tobacco, leather, some oak tannin and anise bitterness, sherried malt, and light peat smoke.

This is exactly what I want in my ideal single malt – a prominent but also balanced red wine influence with bright fruits and an array of spices with some oak. Delicious!