Whisky I've Drank: Compass Box Delilah's American Oak Aged Blended Scotch Whisky

By Tim F
So today we have three new Compass Box goodies to have a go at, which is great because, remarkably, this week marks the fifth year since The Whisky Exchange Whisky Blog (snappy title) first slithered onto your screens. Yes! Five years already!! Egad and Holy Crapola.
Yo, I’m back! Just because it’s the anniversary.
But no, in all actuality, it’s really five years and two days since I put up the obligatory ‘Hello world’ cringeworthy intro blog post that was required of all blogs at the time. The first proper post, which I’m still rather proud of as my first t’interweb essay, was the following day, when I dissected La Martiniquaise’s acquisition of Glen Moray in typically over-written fashion (start as you mean to go on, I say).
Obligatory reference to other stuff that happened on September 18th 2008: Er, sod all. Just some financial crisis stuff and Keeley Hazell’s birthday. Thanks for nothing, Wikipedia.
Anyway let’s crack on, time is short when you’re having fun (that’s right, isn’t it?). As I mentioned, we have some nice Compass Box goodies to have a go at. They include Delilah’s, a new blend created specifically to go with beer (presumably they couldn’t go with Boilermaker as someone else has already got there); and a pair of ‘experimental’ (it says here) blends, one of which will go on to be a permanent addition to the Great King Street range.
Delilah’s, then. Cool label, check. American oak, check. It really couldn’t be anything other than a Compass Box whisky. The story here is that Compass Box have created a new blend for a trendy nitespot of the same name‘s 20th anniversary and, presumably, they got their measurements wrong like in Spinal Tap’s Stonhenge (but the other way round) and ended up with far too much (I’m totally making this up, by the way, that’s definitely not what happened).
Anyway, it’s not confined solely to Delilah’s bar, which is a relief as that’s in Chicago (apparently they’re into their punk there) and otherwise we wouldn’t be able to sell it to you and this whole blog would be a complete and utter waste of your time. Eh? Oh.
Delilah’s is quite limited though – only 1200 bottles have made it intact from the US for the whole of everywhere else, so it’ll probably run out pretty quick. It’s bottled at 40%, which is pretty low for Compass Box, but that’s because Delilah’s is intended to be an easy-drinking sipper appealing to a broad range of folk. Incidentally, the bar itself was referred to as the most important bar in America by none other than Michael Jackson (the good one) and has won the title of the USA’s Best Whisky Bar on numerous occasions, so if you’re ever in Chicago it’s probably a good idea to go there.
“Mike[owner of Delilah’s] wanted a Scotch whisky that, in his words, ‘thinks it’s a Bourbon,’ so we sourced some single malts aged in new American oak hogsheads, something that’s very hard to find in Scotland. The result is a Scotch with a big, luscious vanilla-oak character that has echoes of Bourbon flavo[u]r. This makes it dangerously easy to drink neat and perfect served as a shot with a beer—the way a lot of whisky is enjoyed at Delilah’s!”- John Glaser”
Yes, that’s right – new American oak. Which could be said to be in vogue these days. For ye nerds, here’s the patented Compass Box coy cask lowdown: “Single malts from the towns of Alness and Longmorn (approx 50% of the recipe); single grain whisky from Fife (approx 50% of the recipe).”
COMPASS BOX DELILAH’S:
Nose: 

Very clean and fresh, with green apple and some lemon and grapefruit juice. Then restrained vanilla oak, with hot-buttered toast, roasted oats and coconut shell. A hint of spongecake develops.
Palate: 

 Follows on perfectly, with Compass Box’s trademark precision. Shows apples, vanilla, cream soda and some mildly sappy oak. Impressively hefty for 40%, bottling at 40% is by no means a disservice to this whisky. Characterful.
Finish: 

Very good length, drying.
Comment: 

Of course, it doesn’t taste like a bourbon, it’s not nearly sweet enough. But there’s no doubting it’s from American oak. In the interests of thoroughness, tenacity and self-sacrifice that TWE Blog has never really become a byword for, I also tried it on either side of a slug of light beer. I couldn’t bring myself to drink Budweiser, so I settled for a Reinheitsgebot German lager. They went together like toast and beans.
Delilah’s is a very pleasing whisky with attitude aplenty without taking itself too seriously and it goes down a treat.
The literature I have received explains that both of these blends have been bottled at 43%. The orange one is lightly sherried, while the blue one is a bit peaty. The orange one (00-V4) is “28% Lowland grain whisky, 72% Malt whisky from the regions of Speyside, the Highlands and islands and with a small percentage of peated malt from Islay. Mostly first-fill Sherry casks and refill ex-Bourbon barrels.”
The blue one, meanwhile, (TR-06, keep up), is “33% Lowland grain whisky, 67% Malt whisky from the regions of Islay, the Highlands and Speyside. A third of the recipe is from fruity single malt from the village of Brora. Mostly first-fill ex-bourbon casks and new French oak finish for additional complexity.”