Pour a glass and it smells like someone left the spice rack open next to a warm oven. Clove, ginger, a little cinnamon. The Spice Tree is the whisky that once got pulled off the shelves, fought its way back with a cleverer cask, and has now quietly become a piece of modern Scotch history.
Expert description
Compass Box The Spice Tree is a Blended Malt Scotch Whisky matured in 1st fill bourbon barrels and custom hybrid casks fitted with new, toasted French oak heads, bottled at 46%.
American John Glaser left his job as marketing director at Johnnie Walker and founded Compass Box in 2000. The company owns no distillery. Instead it buys malt from Scottish distilleries and marries it together, and Glaser always preferred the word whiskymaker to blender. As a Blended Malt Whisky, The Spice Tree contains nothing but malt whisky made from malted barley, sourced from several distilleries. No grain whisky at all.
The first release arrived in 2005. To draw more spice from the wood, Compass Box had placed flat French oak staves inside the casks. The Scotch Whisky Association decided that broke the rules on how Scotch may be matured and threatened legal action, so production stopped. A few years later it returned in hybrid casks developed with coopers in France and Scotland: American oak bodies with heads of new French oak from the Vosges forests. Nobody could object to that.
The recipe is more intricate than the label lets on. In batches bottled from March 2021 onwards, just under three quarters of the whisky is a proprietary Highland Malt Blend, split across hybrid casks with three different toast levels. Heavy toast brings dark chocolate, cinnamon and clove, medium toast rich vanilla and caramel, light toast toffee, honey and spiced apple. The rest is Glen Moray and Balmenach from 1st fill bourbon barrels, adding perfumed apple, honey and a waxy fruitiness underneath. The Highland Malt Blend itself is roughly 60% Glen Moray, 25% Tomatin and 15% Balmenach. Earlier batches were built on Clynelish, Teaninich and Dailuaine.
In summer 2024 Compass Box retired both The Spice Tree and The Story of the Spaniard from its core range, making room for Crimson Casks. What remains on the market is residual stock. The whisky is non-chill filtered and has natural colour.
Tasting notes
Nose
Clove and fresh ginger up front, followed by cinnamon and nutmeg over a soft layer of vanilla. Ripe apple and a touch of honey sit further back.
Palate
Full, round and sweet. The French oak spice wraps itself around a fruity malt core, with vanilla close behind. Gingernut biscuits, toffee and a peppery warmth across the middle of the tongue.
Finish
Long and spicy with toasted oak. Honeycomb and a hint of nectarine and plum linger while the pepper slowly fades.
Specifications
Name: Compass Box The Spice Tree
Bottler: Compass Box
Distilleries: Glen Moray, Tomatin and Balmenach
Region/Country: Scotland
Type: Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
ABV: 46%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: 1st fill bourbon barrels and hybrid casks with new, toasted French oak heads and American oak bodies
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Natural colour: Yes
Distillation method: Pot still
EAN no.: 5065000482602
Flavour profile
Spicy · French oak · Vanilla · Fruity · Sweet
Did you know?
Compass Box clashed with the Scotch Whisky Association again in 2015, this time for wanting to tell drinkers exactly which whiskies, and how old, went into each bottle. The rules only allowed the youngest age to be mentioned. That fight for transparency is the reason you can now look up the precise cask percentages behind The Spice Tree.
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