Compass Box Brulee Royale
The Tasting Notes
Immediate crème brûlée, poached pears and scatterings of freshly opened vanilla pods on the nose, which opens to custard Danish and scorched sugar brittles.
The palate is thick with clotted cream, honeyed malt and broiled peaches followed by the whimsical splattering of freshly mixed custard over an expansive and temperately toasted tarte Tatin.
There’s almost the wobble of a perfectly made pannacotta. Gentle nutmeg spice follows on a tributary of silken jersey milk finishing with a whisper of burnt toffee and banana split.
Details
Sugar is not destroyed by fire but transformed. If you’re precise, of course. Brûlée Royale is inspired by François Massialot, the visionary French chef who worked in the Palace of Versailles’s kitchens and wrote the first recipe for what we would come to recognise as the crème brûlée.
Versailles in the 17th century was the dazzling epicentre of innovation in art, science and gastronomy. It was Massialot’s playground and science lab, but when preparing desserts to satisfy royal appetites, the margin for error was miniscule. In pursuit of perfection, he became known for both his innovation, and his exactitude.. Caramelising sugar with a red-hot fire shovel, for example, must have required extensive practice!
Our brûlée, fit for anyone with a royal appetite, combines the silky vanilla custard notes of malt whiskies matured in ex-bourbon barrels with sweet, crackling toffee flavours delivered by custom American oak barrels. Just as Massialot stoked the flames at Versailles to achieve the perfect caramelised crust, our friends at Independent Stave Co.’s Missouri cooperage employ computer-controlled toasting and charring techniques to coax extraordinary flavours from American white oak with great precision. Like the sugar atop a perfect crème brûlée, this whisky is testament to fire’s power to bring forth
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