Compass Box Flaming Heart 2012 Edition, 48.9%

In my book, the bar can't be set much higher than it is for Flaming Heart and this latest version doesn't disappoint, though it does head off into a scuzzier, grittier, and more peaty direction than the 10th anniversary bottling, and has lost some of the black currant fruitiness in the process. No matter: this smolders with peaty and fishy intensity, works its way round to tinned strawberries, damson, and berry fruits, and emerges sooty and smoky. A BIG whisky.