Review / Magic Cask

The Magic Cask is from the artisan whisky blending company of Compass Box and was the final limited edition bottling that helped to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2020. It joined the Hedonism Felicitas, Rogues’ Banquet and Peat Monster Arcana special editions. The Magic Cask is a blended malt made using only Speyside single malts, including some that was distilled from the long-closed Imperial distillery near Aberlour. However, the Magic Cask is so named due to the inclusion of one very special cask (Cask #2) - a first-fill ex-Oloroso sherry butt that was filled by Compass Box with one year old Speyside spirit in 2016 as part of a controlled experiment. 

Review - Peat Monster Arcana

This whisky sees Compass Box, the innovative whisky blenders, continuing their 20th anniversary celebrations with the release of a limited edition version of their popular Peat Monster blended malt. Peat Monster Arcana is a cask strength version of the original Peat Monster recipe that has then seen a further two years maturation in French oak casks. This was then blended further with aged single malts from the Ardbeg, Miltonduff and Talisker distilleries. It is released at 46% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. There are 8,328 bottles and these will be available via specialist whisky retailers globally. Price - £75/ $95 US.

Review - Compass Box Spice Tree Extravaganza

The Extravaganza celebrates the 10 year anniversary of the legendary Spice Tree release. This was famously banned by the Scotch Whisky Association due to un-traditional maturation methods when it was first released. The new expression is a blend of three single malts - Allt-a-Bhainne, Benrinnes and Glen Ord - and three pockets of 'Highland Malt Blend' (consisting of whiskies from Clynelish, Dailuaine and Teaninich) that have been matured in 'hybrid' casks.  This is a limited edition release and there are just 12,240 bottles available, which is presented in special commemorative packaging.

Review - Compass Box 3 Year Old Deluxe

The 3 Year Old Deluxe is a new limited edition that formed part of artisan whisky company Compass Box's Autumn releases.  It is a blended malt formed of just three components, one of which is just three years old. This makes up just 0.4% of the whisky but legally has to be named - the youngest whisky included must be shown if declaring an age statement.  The whisky is released to support Compass Box's Scotch Whisky Transparency campaign - to read more about that, click here.  This was launched after Compass Box were informed that they were communicating information about the components within their whiskies in an illegal way.

Review - Enlightenment by Compass Box

The Enlightenment is a new limited edition blended malt created by leading artisan whisky company Compass Box.  It is designed to be a celebration of their ongoing Scotch Whisky Transparency Campaign, which currently has over 7,000 people signed up to it.  The Enlightenment was conceived by John Glaser, the founder of Compass Box, and is a blend of Highland and Speyside single malts.  These include Balblair, Clynelish, Glentauchers and Mortlach distilleries.  There are just 5,922 bottles and they will be available from today (May 25) in Europe and then early June in the USA.

Review - Flaming Heart (5th Edition)

The Flaming Heart is made by Compass Box, the innovative artisan whisky blending company. This is the fifth edition of this award-winning blended malt and has been released to celebrate the company's 15th anniversary.  It remains true to the original 2006 expression of Flaming Heart, but uses older whiskies. This is a marriage of Highland and Islay malts ranging from 14 to 30 years in age, plus a seven years old blended malt featuring three Highland distilleries that has been matured in French oak casks for a minimum of two years. The Flaming Heart takes its names from the famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, where he states: "Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart".

Review - This Is Not A Luxury Whisky

This Is Not A Luxury Whisky is the latest limited edition relase from the multi award winning artisan blending house of Compass Box.  The whisky plays on the concept that the liquid, rather than packaging, that defines quality and seemingly challenges other brands that think otherwise.  The whisky is a blended malt containing four different components and each were selected and blended by John Glaser, the company's founder, and his team. The name pays homage to the 1929 painting by Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte entitled La Trahison des Images (The Treachery of Images), which famously states 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' ('This is not a pipe').

Review - Hedonism Quindecimus

The multi award-winning blending company of Compass Box are kicking off their 15th anniversary celebrations with this special limited edition whisky that reinvents an old favourite. The Hedonism Quindecimus recreates the original Hedonism that was Compass Box's first whisky to market back in 2000. The Quindecimus expression blends together single grain whiskies of varying ages (said to be between 20-32 years old) from five different distilleries and has been created by Compass Box founder John Glaser. All have been matured in American oak casks.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (March 27, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Review - Compass Box 'The Lost Blend'

This is a new blended malt from the leading artisan whisky company of Compass Box.  The Lost Blend is inspired by the O. Henry book of the same name from 1907, in which the author writes "Distilled elixir of battle, money and high life!"  It also pays homage to Compass Box's own 'lost blend' - the Eleuthera - and combines three single malts (from the Allt-a-Bhainne, Caol Ila and Clynelish distilleries).  The packaging also features other items lost to history, including a gramophone and the dodo.

New release - Great King Street 'The Glasgow Blend'

The Glasgow Blend is the second permanent expression in the award-winning Great King Street range, and joins the Artist's Blend. It is a blend of 67% malt and 33% grain whiskies, with an emphasis on rich, rounded smoke and sherry cask influence. This is a high percentage of malt content for a blend and the whisky has been created by John Glaser, the founder of Compass Box.  The original version of Great King Street has won multiple awards and is one of our all time favourite whiskies.

New release - The Entertainer by Compass Box

Compass Box, the artisan whisky company, have teamed up with Selfridge's, one of the UK's leading department store chains, for their latest release. The Entertainer has been created to celebrate the life of Gordon Selfridge, the legendary founder of the department store. It can be purchased exclusively in one of their four department stores in Birmingham, London (Oxford Street) and Manchester (Exchange Square or Trafford Centre), or via their website www.selfridges.com.

Have just tried - The Last Vatted Malt

This whisky was released in November last year and was bottled to mark the change in law by the UK Government.  The Last Vatted Malt is produced by boutique whisky producer Compass Box and the clue as to the law change is in the name.  As the clock struck midnight on 22/23 November, it became illegal to use the name 'vatted malt' on any product.  A vatted malt is a whisky that is made using two or more single malts, and from that point onwards they would have to be referred to as 'blended malts'.

Compass Box was founded in 2000 by John Glaser and is based in west London. They also now have offices in Edinburgh. Their ethos is to buy whisky from a small number of distilleries and then craft them together into their own unique products. All are produced and released in small batches, often using only two or three whiskies to create a unique product with a catchy name. By doing their own blending and vatting, Compass Box have less restrictions than traditional independent bottlers and is a former winner of the prestigious Whisky Magazine's Innovator of the Year.

Compass Box believe that the law and name change will create confusion with consumers and whisky drinkers, as they may mix up 'blended malts' with blended whiskies - these contain whiskies made from other grains in addition to the single malts.  Therefore, the Last Vatted Malt was born and the last ever bottle was filled on Westminster Bridge, next to the Houses of Parliament, in London as Big Ben approached midnight.  We were delighted to be invited to that and to read fully about the law and name changes, plus that event on Westminster Bridge - click here.

The Last Vatted Malt is made up of just two un-named single malts - a 36 year old distilled in 1974 and from Speyside which has been matured in first-fill ex-sherry casks (strongly rumoured to be from Aberlour), and a 26 year old distilled in 1984 from Islay which have been matured in ex-bourbon American oak casks (strongly rumoured to be from Caol Ila). It is being released at the natural cask strength of 53.7% ABV and there are just 1,323 bottles, retailing at £175 each.

Our tasting notes
The colour is a dark amber brown and the nose is rich, expressive and sumptuous.  An initial note of burnt brown sugar quickly gives way to some sweeter aromas, namely malty cereal grains and soft, earthy peat.  This peaty aroma evolves with time in the glass - at times is feels mossy and at others it is reminiscent of creamy coal tar soap.  There are other elements adding further depth - spiced orange (think of marmalade), caramel, toasted almonds, vanilla and marzipan.  This nose is very positive and the combination of aromas is stunning and deserving of your prolonged attention.

On the palate, things kick off with the soft, sweet peat smoke again.  This time it seems to evolve in to having a tobacco/cigar-like quality.  There are plenty of notes vying for attention - wood spices (think of cinnamon bark and oak) grip your taste buds and add pleasing dryness, bittersweet cereals give further intensity and dark dried fruits bring good sweetness (imagine raisins, figs, prunes and dates).  More subtle notes of vanilla, coconut, spiced/cloved orange peel, dark chocolate and bitter espresso contribute to a wonderful compexity and combine well with the ever present and prominent smoke.

The finish is very long and rich with plenty of drying smokiness present.  This becomes increasingly tobacco-like and is reminiscent of the feeling when you have finished smoking a cigar.  Further woody spice combines with this and some robust cereals and a lovely fudge brownie chocolate note to create a finish that lingers for ages.  Delicious.

What's the verdict?
Compass Box rarely do things by halves and this is no exception.  The careful selection of the two casks and subsequent combining of them shows their skills.  The smoky whisky could easily overpower the sherry casked one, but it doesn't - the marriage seems perfect.  It is easy to see why they have won a hatful of awards. This whisky is a fitting tribute to all of the vatted malts that went before it in over 150 years of the old naming process.  It can only be hoped that all forthcoming blended malts can be this good or better. Very few whiskies would make us part with £175, but this could well be one of them.

The Last Vatted Malt by Compass Box

The time is one minute to midnight on Tuesday the 22nd of November and we were standing on Westminster Bridge watching two men filling a bottle with whisky in the cold. Were we mad? No. Were we slightly tipsy? Maybe a little. Were we witnessing history? Yes.

The reason that we were there is to see the last bottle of whisky that can legally be called a 'vatted malt' being bottled.  The new name of 'blended malt' would legally have to be used on the same product if it were bottled just over one minute later thanks to a UK Government law change. The two men were John Glaser and Chris Maybin of artisan whisky company Compass Box and their business is based on creating 'vatted malts'.

The term 'vatted malt' has been legally used since the 19th century and refers to a Scotch whisky that is created using a combination of two or more single malts.  These single malts can be from different distilleries, be of differing ages and of differing styles.  They are created in the industry by highly skilled whisky makers - they use the characteristics of the differing single malts to produce a final whisky with aromas and flavour profiles that a single malt could not produce on its own.  This is the style of whisky in which Compass Box specialise and also what has gained them many awards around the globe.

Compass Box was founded in 2000 by John Glaser and is based in west London.  They also now have offices in Edinburgh. Their ethos is to buy whisky from a small number of distilleries and then craft them together into their own unique products. All are produced and released in small batches, often using only two or three whiskies to create a unique product with a catchy name. By doing their own blending and vatting, Compass Box have less restrictions than traditional independent bottlers and is a former winner of the prestigious Whisky Magazine's Innovator of the Year.

Compass Box believe that the new naming regulations will create ambiguity with consumers, who may confuse the new 'blended malts' with regular 'blended whiskies' (these contain single malts plus whisky made from other grains).  Therefore, they are on a massive education drive to inform the public of the new changes and legal definitions.  The five new definitions fall under The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, which came in to force on 23 November.  They are ...

Blended Scotch Whisky
A blend of one or more single malt Scotch whiskies with one or more single grain Scotch whiskies.
Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
A blend of two or more single malt Scotch whiskies that have been distilled at more than one distillery. (previously known as Vatted Malt or Pure Malt Scotch Whisky).
Blended Grain Scotch Whisky
A blend of two or more single grain Scotch whiskies that have been distilled at more than one distillery. (previously known as Vatted Grain Scotch Whisky).
Single Malt Scotch Whisky
A Scotch whisky that has been distilled in pot stills in one or more batches at a single distillery from water and malted barley, without the addition of any other cereals.
Single Grain Scotch Whisky
A Scotch whisky that has been distilled at a single distillery except 'Single Malt Scotch Whisky' or a 'Blended Scotch Whisky'.

To mark the passing of the new law, Compass Box have released a special whisky entitled The Last Vatted Malt (pictured, below).  This was the whisky which we witnessed being filled on Westminster Bridge as Big Ben struck midnight.

The whisky is made up of just two un-named single malts - a 36 year old distilled in 1974 and from Speyside which has been matured in first-fill ex-sherry casks, and a 26 year old distilled in 1984 from Islay which have been matured in ex-bourbon American oak casks.  It is being released at the natural cask strength of 53.7% ABV and there are just 1,323 bottles, retailing at £175 each. We will be reviewing this shortly, so watch out for our tasting notes.

This is joined by The Last Vatted Grain, which is even more limited in number (only 297 bottles).  This is constructed from four different grain whiskies - Cameronbridge 1997, Carsebridge 1979, Invergordon 1965 & Port Dundas 1991 - all of which have been maturing in first-fill ex-bourbon casks.  This is bottled at 46% ABV and retails at £130 (rumours are that it has already sold out!).

So after a few hours warming up in the über cool basement bar of DuckSoup in Soho (by 'warming up' we mean supping on well made cocktails, especially the Last Vatted Punch - a mix of Compass Box Spice Tree whisky, tea and herbs - created in honour of the occasion), the group moved down to Westminster Bridge for the final act.  Under the view of Big Ben and The Houses of Parliament, where the law was made, we witnessed the last vatted malt being bottled.  We were felt privileged to be part of a selected group of people that were invited to be there. We also recorded the short clip below to capture the moment, we hope that you enjoy watching ...