When Compass Box released No Name last October, there was a lot of buzz around it. It is the peatiest whisky ever from Compass Box with 75.5% of it hailing from Ardbeg. Take into account that the Ardbeg portion carries an unpublished but still obtainable (via email) age statement that wasn’t seen from indie Ardbegs in ages (although recently a few indie Ardbegs popped up with similar age) and you can see why people were enamored by it. And let’s not forget the sexy black presentation and the added wink in the form of the ‘No Name’ name.

So the large portion in this blended whisky, 75.5% comes from Ardbeg (from re-charred barrels,) 10.6% comes from Caol Ila (refill barrels), 13.4% from Clynelish (re-charred hogsheads) and measly 0.5% of Compass box Highland malt blend (which is 60% Clynelish and 20% of both Dailuaine and Teaninich) finished in Compass Box’s heavy toasted French Oak hybrid cask for 6 months.

15,000 bottles were produced, bottled at 48.9% without added color or chill filtering.

Compass Box No Name (48.9%, £98.00/€98,90)

Nose: Very clean peat, lemon and lime, lots of smoke and a bit of tar. Quite fatty with oil wax, fruitiness lead by pears, red apples and some peaches.

Palate: Sweet and oily, honey, peat, dryness, waxiness, ashes sharpness, salt and subtle fruitiness lurking behind the bold peatiness.

Finish: Long and dry sweet peat, waxiness, subtle honey sweetness and ashes.

Thoughts: Well, I can’t understand what’s the fuss about No Name. It’s nice, it’s peaty with strong Ardbeg characteristics, but at the same time it’s also a bit straightforward and even perhaps a tad boring. It was nice to try a whisky with an aged Ardbeg which was hard to come by until recently, but eventually it’s really one for either die hard Ardbeg fans and/or Compass Box groupies only.