Compass Box 3 Year Old Deluxe

Compass Box 3 year old Deluxe is a limited edition blended malt Scotch whisky. It is made up of a blend of three different whiskies: 0.4% is 3 year old malt whisky produced near Brora and aged in a first-fill American standard barrel, 90.3% is malt whisky (which Compass Box say is ‘considerably older’ than 3 years old) also produced near Brora and aged in a refill hogshead, and 9.3% is malt whisky produced on the Isle of Skye and aged in a first fill sherry butt. Compass Box can only lawfully disclose the age of the youngest component of this whisky (which would be the 3 year old malt whisky that makes up a mere 0.4% of the whisky’s liquid volume). Paradoxically, EU and UK regulations make it unlawful for Compass Box to share the ages of the two malt whiskies that, when combined, make up 99.6% of the whisky’s liquid volume. This is the case even though achieving market transparency and protecting consumers are important purposes of the regulations. Rather than release this product as a “no age statement” whisky (which conceals all information about a whisky’s age from consumers), Compass Box chose to label it as a “3 year old”. Nicely played, because this seems to demonstrate the bizarre effect of the regulations.