Remember Compass Box “This is Not a Luxury Whisky” I reviewed last week? When it was released, to celebrate Compass Box 15th anniversary, there was another whisky release: the 5th edition of Flaming Heart.

Once again, we do get to see what are the ingredients and it and I wish we could see such a list for every whisky. is very interesting composition: old Caol Ila, younger Caol Ila, Large dose of Clynelish and a dash of spicy young highland malt.

There are 12,060 bottles of this whisky, bottled at 48.9%, Not chilled-filtered and Natural color. Let’s dive into it.

Compass Box Flaming Heart 5th Edition (48.9%, £99.95/€129.95 )

Nose: Starts very smoky but the smoke subsides and then

there’s sweet peat with weak fruit behind and vanilla – very Caol Ila like, taking the pilot seat. I wanted to say it’s not complex and nice but then I got nuts oil, waxy notes and even faraway floral meadow.

Palate: Smoky and fruity. sweet but has taming ash to balance it, spice, waxy, floral and sweetness.

Finish: Medium length, light smoke, freshness, fresh herbal and floral mix beneath the smoke, even menthol (or is it eucalyptus?)

Thoughts: Good stuff. This one isn’t so experimental as “This is Not a Luxury Whisky”, being more conservative and more with what people expects of a whisky made with over 60% of Caol Ila. Personally, I preferred it over the TiNaLW release, in fact, I loved it a lot.