For St. Columba's Day - a solid Scotch
This was new one that came from my father-in-law who saw the words “peat monster” and immediately thought of his second favorite son-in-law. Well, who am I to look a gift scotch in the mouth? To be honest I stood at my in-law's bar muttering “...goddamn...” with my nose in a glass for a few minutes before rejoining the party.
Peat Monster Arcana is a limited Edition from the good people at Compass Box, who are responsible for some scotches that have made a nice name for themselves with big, peaty blended whiskies. Arcana is a little different: it is smokey, but fairly subdued, given its name. It’s got some peat to it, mind, but it lacks that Hadrian’s Wall camp fire punch to it. Subtle, maybe, put together well enough for me to stand at my in-law’s muttering “...godamn...”
Compass Box isn’t a distillery, but takes several whiskies, ages them further in various casks and then blends them. The key to this one is that it is nearly three quarters Talisker – God’s favored scotch (allegedly, but also obviously). Along with Ardbeg another crew that knows how to make handle uisqebeatha.
It’s light on the eye, like light honey, with some smoke on the nose, along with oak what I can only describe as vanilla saltwater taffy. The palate is lighter than you are thinking, with smoke and North Sea minerality. There is a hint of fruit, but just. I was thinking more along the lines of crème brûlée.
As we are running up to the feastday of St. Columba, the hero credited with bringing the art distillation to Scotland, you could do worse than hoist a dram of the Peat Monster Arcana. As you can see, this bottle is empty, but we have it on good authority that you can get your own bottle, unmolested by the 4717.
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