Smoky and sweet, but is it a malt or a grain. Compass Box has used a special package of whiskey made at Loch Lomond Distillery from peat malted barley, distilled in their copper Coffey still. Despite this being 100% malted barley, the use of a column rather than a pot still during distillation means this cannot be classed as a single malt – it is the perfect spirit to build a unique blended Scotch whiskey grain around.
An appetizing aroma of contrasts: Banana and toffee mix with soft, spicy barbecue smoke and hints of rum and raspberry. Enjoy a soft and oily taste of almond and vanilla before a strangely delicious taste of burnt pine cones develops.
Compass Box is one of the most innovative blenders and independent bottlers in Scotch whisky. The company was founded by the American John Glaser in the year 2000, and at the beginning he ran the company from his own kitchen. Today, Compass Box has headquarters in London and more than a dozen employees.
The watchword for Compass Box is transparency – something that is not exactly commonplace in the modern whiskey industry. On their website (compassboxwhisky.com) you can access the recipes for almost all of their blends. And if there is more you want to know, you can usually get an answer by email.
It is this ethos that guides John Glaser when, as a “whisky maker”, he shakes up the perception of how a blended whiskey should be made and tasted, and this has meant that Compass Box has often been on edge with the slightly conservative Scotch Whiskey Association. The most famous case was the first edition of The Spice Tree whisky, which was aged in “illegal” casks with inserted staves of French oak. Compass Box had to change the recipe for The Spice Tree, but they haven’t surrendered to the idea that you have to do what you’ve always done, and continue to experiment and innovate where they can.
