Secrets Of Smoke

About

Compass Box was founded in 2000 by John Glaser, an American who left Johnnie Walker to pursue a fresh vision for Scotch whisky. *Secrets of Smoke* is a deliberate challenge to the peated-whisky cliché: it's not just smoke, but the hidden sweetness that lives beneath it. Whiskymaker James Saxon assembled malts from Laphroaig, Caol Ila, Bowmore, and Ardmore, blended with Compass Box's own Peat Monster. The key: refill red wine casks coax bright cherry notes and blueberry-flapjack flavours, while Laphroaig matured in Marsala barrique adds unexpected depth. This combination of wine-cask influence and Marsala finishing is what sets it apart from routine peated blends. On the nose: peppery and medicinal, with salt and tart citrus cutting through the smoke. On the palate, sweetness emerges—honey, pear, peach—rising out from under campfire smoke and iodine. The red wine works quietly in the background, no heaviness. The finish stays smoky but laced with chocolate and slowly building citrus.

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