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Malt Scotch Whisky
It’s back. Our seminal and award-winning malt whisky. The Spice Tree.
Flavours: Big, sweet aromas of clove, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.
The palate is full, round and sweet, with spice and vanilla complementing the core
distillery characters and leaving a long finish.
Recommendations: Its rich, bold flavours make it most suitable for after-dinner
sipping, as an accompaniment to certain cheeses, and ideal in cocktails.
Distillery Sourcing: Sourced entirely from northern Highland single malt
distilleries, primarily malt whisky distilled at Clynelish distillery. All 10 to
12 years-old.
Wood: Primary maturation: first fill and refill American oak. Secondary maturation:
custom barrels with heavily toasted new French oak heads sourced from 195 year-old
Vosges forests.
Bottling Details: Bottled at 46%. Not Chill Filtered. Natural Colour.
John’s notes:
The Second coming
First launched in 2005, we were forced to discontinue production under a legal threat
by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) for our pioneering use of the highest quality
French oak inner staves. This, despite rave reviews from consumers, trade and press.
We agreed to disagree with the SWA and halted production (for the full story see
www.compassboxwhisky.com).
Over the past three years we have developed a new maturation process which yields
similar if not superior results to our previous method, and this new process is
something the SWA can’t take any issue with.
The Whisky & the Method
As in the past, The Spice Tree is 100% malt whisky, sourced from northern Highland
Distilleries, notably and primarily malt whisky of first-fill and refill American
oak.
What is different is the secondary maturation. Rather than using inner save inserts,
as we did for the original Spice Tree, we rack the whisky into barrels with heavily
toasted new French oak heads. We have created a method for getting a super heavy
toast on the cask heads which imparts a flavour profile similar to the flat staves
used for the original Spice Tree (a similar process to what we have developed for
our whisky Oak Cross, except that for the Spice Tree we use more heavily toasted
and an we leave the whisky to age on it longer). We use oak with three different
levels of toasting on the barrel heads, thus allowing us to blend the resultant
whiskies to create additional layers of complexity. This secondary maturation last
as long as two years.
The Spice Tree is a very rich malt whisky, suitable for after dinner sipping, as
an accompaniment to certain cheeses, and especially, in cocktails.
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