The news coincided with the announcement that London investment firm Caelum Capital had become majority shareholder of Compass Box. The acquisition, financial details of which were not disclosed, will help fund the firm’s desire to seek out compelling whiskies, experiment and innovate.

Glaser does, however, see “a lot more openness now” when it comes to transparency, particularly with smaller or independent producers. There’s something really extraordinary and compelling, and magical, a deep cultural history that nobody gets, nobody understands. I thought I could bring this discovery to the world by doing it on my own rather than with all the money we had at Johnnie Walker.” The art of making whisky: Compass Box’s Artist BlendGlaser reflects fondly on working with “legends in the industry”, including recently retired Johnnie Walker master blender Dr Jim Beveridge, and Diageo master blender Maureen Robinson. “Blending really did capture my imagination as a creative platform,” Glaser explains. Palate: The mouthfeel is silky and luxurious. The flavors are given a platform to develop and linger, allowing the sipper to explore the aftertaste as well as the actual drink. It has a very light and delicate fruitiness, with ok, peat, and a hint of white pepper. The spice lingers, but is balanced. Fruits hit the middle of the tongue with ripe pear, baked apples, and just a hint of raisin. London-based Compass Box does both styles of blending. I am generally pulled in by the brand’s attention to detail, and the fact that the blending is done to carefully marry flavors rather than stretch more flavorful malt whisky with milder grain. Much like a jazz musician pulls from the sounds from their band mates when crafting solos, Compass Box approaches their craft with intention and an open-minded palate. Helmed by John Glaser, the creative minds at Compass Box appear to strive for an elevation of established flavor profiles to find their balance in their spirits. This philosophy, in my opinion, tends to delivers a higher quality product. It is an idea that absolutely still has merit because age is not everything; older is not necessarily better, it’s just different,” Glaser insists. “It gives more interested drinkers an idea of what to expect.”

The self‐confessed “wine geek and beer home brewer” was not a Scotch whisky drinker at the time – but after being sent to Scotland, Glaser was soon enamoured with the ‘water of life’.Burun: İlk koklamayla birlikte “Orchard House” adının hakkını fazlasıyla veren oldukça taze ve meyvemsi bir burun. Elma, armut, üzüm, şeftali, limon gibi zengin meyvemsi kokulara vanilya ve hafif karamel eşlik ediyor. If we decide not to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms, such decision shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. In Scotland, a lot of people said, ‘hey, you know what, our national drink is not doing very well. We’ll take anybody, even an American who’s trying to create something different with a sincere, unique approach to Scotch whisky, and integrity in terms of quality,” Glaser notes.

This year, Compass Box Experimental Grain Whisky came to market with the aim of blurring the boundaries of the Scotch category. Containing a portion of spirit made from peated malted barley, the 100% malt whisky differs from others because it was distilled in a column still, rather than a pot still. As such, it must legally be defined as a grain whisky in accordance with Scotch regulations.I’m a big John Glaser fan. I think he’s done more to elevate blended scotch and especially blended malt (The Artist Formerly Known As Vatted Malt) than anyone in the industry. That said, the last many releases I’ve found to be overpriced and while not underwhelming, they have not exceeded expectations. I’m sure this is due to a drastic increase in pricing of barrels on the secondary market, a drastic decrease in the quality available on the secondary market (distilleries are keeping their good barrels for popular limited releases), and frankly a limited canvas. If your audience is jaded whisky drinkers like yours truly who expect to have their heightened expectations exceeded with every new release, and all you’ve got is a dwindling supply of Clynelish, Linkwood, Caol Ila, and Benrinnes barrels to draw from, well… I guess I should be more lenient. Damak: Damakta da burunda olduğu gibi meyve karakteri belirgin. Elma, armut, şeftali ve limon aromalarına meşe, vanilya, zencefil ve beyaz karabiber eşlik ediyor. 46% derecelik alkol kendini hafif hissettiriyor. The administration that put these tariffs in place thought, ‘well, single malts are the best; they must be the most expensive’, not thinking that there may be blended Scotch whiskies and blended malts, and other categories of Scotch whisky, which are equally good, equally expensive, or more expensive,” says Glaser. “People have this perception that single malts are the best.” We may sell, license, transfer, assign or in any other way dispose of the Service (including Members) to any third party without any notification to you, e.g. (but without limitation) in connection with any reorganization, restructuring, merger or sale, or other transfer of assets. April 2022 brought major developments for Compass Box, when former Bacardi executive Maurice Doyle was named as the company’s CEO. Doyle boasts almost 30 years’ experience in marketing and commercial leadership in the global premium drinks industry. His appointment will allow Glaser to focus more on areas where “I think I bring the most to the party”, which is whisky making.

The majority of the bottle is first-fill bourbon barrel Linkwood (39%), and that’s followed by 29% Clynelish also drawn from first-fill bourbon barrels. The third major component is 20% Benrinnes, again taken from first-fill bourbon casks. Notice a pattern? However, those three pillars are bolstered by 8% from a revatted oloroso sherry-seasoned butt from a “distillery near the town of Aberlour,” 2% from a first-fill bourbon barrel from Caol Ila, and finally 2% from Compass Box’s very own Highland malt blend. This latter ingredient features malts from Glen Moray, Balmenach and Tomatin. Phew! After drinking and thoroughly enjoying Compass Box’s output over the course of the last decade or so, I was beginning to lose a little faith in them when it came to a bit more fresh variety in their core range. Sure, stalwarts like Peat Monster, Spice Tree and Hedonism are great products for the price, but for me, Compass Box seemed to be focusing more on their limited releases rather than introduce something new and vibrant to the range that helped elevate them into the top tier of blenders in the first place. But Glaser sees the beauty in blends. Since he launched Compass Box in 2000, his goal has been to showcase all that is great about the blended Scotch whisky category.

Looking to the next 22 years, Glaser has a simple, albeit global, ambition. “In a folder are all the things that are important to me in my life,” he reveals. Now we’re talking about the ability to change Scotch whisky legislation when the powers that be behind the Scotch Whisky Association want to change,” he says. “It hasn’t made any difference to us. It’s just not my thing, Tequila casks with Scotch whisky in them, I don’t get it; I don’t get the deliciousness or how they match.” So happy I almost don’t even care if it’s good… almost. I mean, if it’s not good I’m never buying another bottle and that would be sad. Right now my regular buys in the Compass Box line are the Spaniard, Peat Monster and Glasgow Blend which are all great, but it’s all a bunch of peat and sherry/wine casks. I’d love to add in an ex-Bourbon fruit bomb to the rotation. And maybe, just maybe, this will be the answer.