Compass Box Hedonism Felicitas celebrates the 20th anniversary of the company. It is a blend of three grain whiskies each distilled in a different decade:
- 33.1% of Strathclyde (first-fill bourbon)
- 44.1% of Port Dundas (refill sherry butt)
- 22.8% of North British (recharred barrels)
Compass Box Hedonism Felicitas (53%, OB 2020, 2226 btl.)
Nose: you know these white chocolate Twix bars? That’s basically it. White chocolate , oozy caramel, hints of vanilla biscuit. Here with an added layer of coconut cream. There’s also a slightly floral fruitiness of Cavaillon melons and golden apples. Cardamom and nutmeg in the background.
Mouth: more vanilla cream, with baked apples but also increasingly loud varnished / spirity undertones and a good dose of bitterness from the wood. Quite some coconut again. Vanilla. Bready notes. Pepper and juniper. The floral side and high alcohol make it far less polished than I hoped.
Finish: medium, a bit hot and peppery, before it fades on buttery grain biscuits and coconut shavings.
I don’t get the point here. A 30 years old single grain from the aforementioned distilleries costs about the same as this younger blend. Moreover the grains leave their mark with a rough, harsh edge on the palate, so where’s the blending magic? Rather disappointing.