Bought: Amazon, 5th February 2015
Ratings:
84/100 – Whisky Bible 2015
89/100 – Ralfy – His review on You Tube here (March 2012)
Trust the independent bottler Compass Box to come up with a whisky that needs its own special category! Hedonism isn’t a single grain, nor is it a blend, it’s a vatting of different grain whiskies! Cameron Bridge and Cambus to name but two of the possible 15 in the mix. I’ve had to create the new category heading “Scottish Vatted Grain” just for this entry. Compass Box clearly have no consideration for whisky bloggers! 😉
I first came across Hedonism in the book ‘101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die’ back in 2013. It’s unusual nature and great reviews put it firmly on my wish list. At the same time the Whisky Bible 2013 ranked the bottle 91/100. The year before, Ralfy had rated the version he tried with an excellent score of 89/100.
Fast-forward to 2015 and the latest edition of the Whisky Bible reviews a batch of Hedonism bottled in February 2013, and the score has dropped to 84/100. My bottle is from a batch created in July 2014. I’ve downloaded the information about the batch from the Compass Box website, and it’s hardly surprising that reviews vary from release to release. The tasting notes given are “deep aromas of vanilla pastry cream, toffee and lightly toasted nuts with elegant, rich flavours of creamy coconut and milk chocolate.” This is very different from the tasting notes given for the release of Hedonism earlier in 2014.
I suppose, since ‘hedonism’ is the pursuit of pleasure, there’s always an element of uncertainty to what you might encounter along the way. At least with Compass Box you know they’re very consistent with their ability to create wonderful whisky. Each batch of Hedonism might be different but it seems that quality is always lurking in every sip.
Whisky Den 