Description: Type: Blended Scotch Whisky. A blend of Scotch grain whisky and malt whisky (50/50%). Tasting Notes: Sweet, delicate and very smooth on the palate, with flavours of vanilla-cream, cereals, and sweet oakiness. Lead Distilleries: Malt whiskies: Cragganmore, Linkwood, Glen Elgin. Grain whiskies: Cambus, Cameron Bridge. Casks: 100% first-fill Bourbon barrels. Bottling Details: 40%. Not chill filtered, natural colour. John Glasers Tasting Notes: Blended Scotch whiskies (that is, blends of grain whisky and malt whisky) are terribly misunderstood. Ours shows you why the 19th century whisky blenders started combining these two types of whisky to begin with: to create delicious, gulpable, elegant, lighter style whiskies for everyday drinking. The reason ours wins so many awards is that we do it right: blending soft and fruity malt whiskies on a bed of rich and sweet grain whiskies. Its really the quality of our grain whiskies that makes Asyla so special. There is no other blended Scotch whisky that uses grain whiskies of this quality. All whiskies from top notch American oak casks. Delicious. If you love whisky, this should be your house whisky. Asyla is our blend of grain and malt whisky. Its an elegant and approachable whisky that epitomizes the Compass Box house style of richness, sweetness and softness. Its a whisky made for casual drinking, before dinner, outdoors, in a cocktail, or however you like. Before I started Compass Box, I was on a quest to find my perfect everyday house whisky. What I mean is, I wanted a whisky of the quality and flavour characteristics of the very best small production whisky bottlings (i.e, from great casks, no chill filtering, etc.), but in a style thats more conducive to drinking casually, glass after glass. Blended Scotch Whisky, combining malt whiskies and lighter, sweeter grain whiskies, is the perfect medium for this. Asyla, given its malty-fruitiness, its vanilla-sweetness and its softness on the palate, is this style. Its got the complexity and quality that will appeal to serious whisky fans, but also the approachability to intrigue new whisky drinkers, too. Matthew Jukes, the well-known British wine and spirits writer--he gets it! I dont normally like to quote journalists at length, but what he said is right on: Asyla is a whisky for all occasions. It is not a big, spicy, dark style, but a honeyed, heather, vanilla and white flower-style of whisky, with a touch of sweetness on the finish. You could drink it as an aperitif, it is so appealing and mellow. This is the ultimate crowd-pleasing, yet classy whisky... . Blending from individually selected casks without chill filtration is the way to make the kind of whisky Im talking about here. The individual whiskies Ive used to make Asyla were all of a quality that they each could have been bottled as singles; but that would be missing the point. The name Asyla comes from the plural of the word asylum. Its simply a word I like because of the various connotations it can have to the things we do that give texture and meaning to our lives. (I first encountered the word in an article about a piece of music written by Thomas Ads, an award-winning young English musician who wrote an orchestral work called Asyla. Without being too ridiculously philosophical about a bottle of whisky, I just like the different associations the word can have--are we talking sanctuary? madhouse? A little of both? Its up to you. As for the all-important questions about the whisky itself ... Asyla is a blend of some gorgeous, soft, rich malt whiskies, on a bed of delicious grain whiskies. All the whiskies, both malts and grains, are from first-fill American oak casks. I am very particular about the types of casks my whiskies age in, and I pick this type of cask for the additional richness, sweetness and vanilla characters they lend to the whiskies. Asyla is the only blended whisky we know of that comes from exclusively first-fill American oak barrels. This shows through in the style and in the quality of this whisky. The grains (youll notice that from here onward Ill refer to grain whiskies by their nickname as grains and likewise malt whiskies as malts) come from the now-silent Cambus distillery and Cameronbridge in Fife. I say that grains create a bed for the malt whisky because thats exactly what they do: they provide the soft, sweet, vanilla-and-toffee-rich foundation of this whisky, as grains should do for any good blend. Some inexpensive blended whiskies use grains as fillers, choosing young, immature whiskies from poor quality, overused casks. (Is it any wonder why grains and blends often have such a poor reputation?) I use grain whiskies for their flavour, their texture and their sweetness. You get grains with these characteristics by picking well-matured casks of top quality, first fill American oak. The importance of grains cannot be overstated. What many people dont realise is that in really good whisky blends, it is the grains that provide the softness and the smoothness. The malts, while providing bigger flavours, actually have more pungency to them--most people would call this bite. So to make a truly silky, soft whisky blend, you rely on extraordinary grain whiskies as the bed on which you lay the malt whiskies. And you should be happy to know that Asyla, as with all my whiskies, will get slightly hazy when it gets cold or when you add water because I do no chill filter. Asyla is only rough filtered with a guard filter to keep large bits of wood from clogging the bottling equipment. No pad filters ever get in front of my whiskies! This approach gives you all of the complexity, mouthfeel and pureness of flavour of the component whiskies straight from the casks. You CAN tell the difference. Further, the colour of Asyla, like all Compass Box whiskies, is the natural colour of the whiskies. No spirit caramel is added. I know of no other blended whiskies made in this way. By the way, Asyla won a Gold Medal for blended whisky at the 2003 International Wine & Spirit Festival!
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