Compass Box Scotch Whisky.

Creators of Hand Crafted, Small Batch Scotch Whiskies in Distinctive & Original Styles

Compass Box is a specialist Scotch whisky company that are devoted to making some of Scotland's premier whiskies through the art of blending.

 Working like fine wine negociants they choose individual casks of whiskies from different distilleries that offer complementary sets of flavours, and then carefully blend these casks in small batches to make our proprietary whiskies.

They bottle a range of types of Scotch whisky: malt whiskies, grain whisky, malt & grain blends. But at the core of everything is a desire to bring out a purity of flavour, richness and drinking experience that will call you back to the glass. To me, this latter point is the true measure of a whisky's quality.

Their whiskies have unusual names like THE PEAT MONSTER and HEDONISM, and the labels are contemporary in style. It's all part of their vision: taking a contemporary approach to a traditional product.

Eleuthera Malt Whisky

Type: Vatted Malt. 100% malt whisky made by blending single malts from different distilleries.

Tasting Notes: Smoky, rich, complex. Amazingly soft on the palate for its strength.

Lead Distilleries: Clynelish, Glenlossie, Caol Ila.

Casks: All from American oak; a mix of re-charred and refill types.

Bottling Details: 46%, not chill filtered, natural colour.

John's Tasting Notes: “I designed ELEUTHERA to be the most drinkable smoky malt whisky possible. I love smoky malt whiskies, but I find most of them too dry or simply too one-dimensionally smoky to drink more than one glass at a time. The key to ELEUTHERA is to set just the right amount of smoky Islay malt whisky against a backdrop of rich, sweet Highland whiskies. This gives you a very smoky, yet beguilingly sweet and drinkable, dram.

Peat Monster

Type: Vatted Malt (a blend of single malts from different distilleries)

Tasting Notes: The aroma is a highly aromatic combination of fruit, spice and marine peatiness in the form of a beach bonfire. Adding water brings out aromas that remind you of burning ropes and a touch of iodine. In the mouth it is very full on the palate, rich and loaded with flavour: a bacon-fat smokiness, full-blown peat, a maltiness, hints of fruit and spice. The finish goes on seemingly forever, echoing peat and smoke for several minutes after you've had a sip.

Lead Distilleries: Caol Ila, 10 & 11 years-old; Ardmore, 12-17 years-old

Casks: First Refill American oak, ex-bourbon

Bottling Details: 46%, not chill filtered, natural colour

Drinking Recommendations: More of an after dinner and into-the-late-hours-of-the-evening-type of whisky. Drink it neat or with a few splashes of (bottled, preferably) water. Excellent with certain kinds of blue vein cheeses.

John's Notes: This one's for the real peat heads, and for lovers of complex, multi-layered malt whisky. What makes it fit into the Compass Box house style is the balance of richness and subtle sweetness that the old casks of Ardmore provide to the smoky-peaty Caol Ila. As with all our whiskies, several months of marrying allow all the flavours of each of the whiskies to knit together to form what is our biggest and most complex offering. Not over the top, (that's just not our style), but big, complex and balanced.

The Spice Tree Vatted Malt Whisky

Type: Vatted Malt. A blend of single malts from different distilleries.

Tasting Notes: A natural, deep, gold-brown colour and a rich nose with spices such as clove and nutmeg, and sweet stewed fruits. Palate is soft, sweet, deep and rich with a malt whisky fruitiness embellished by rich spice. Very long.

Lead Distilleries: Dailuaine, Teaninich and two other malt whiskies distilled in the villages of Brora and Longmorn.

Wood: 100% first-fill Bourbon barrels and first-fill, re-charred American oak hogsheads for the primary maturation. A portion of the whisky went through a secondary maturation on new (virgin) French Sessile oak, heavily toasted. Our inaugural batch (labelled as such on the front and back labels) had one toast level. Our second batch, released April 2006, had several different toast levels for a slightly more subtle yet complex flavour profile, but definitely similar to the inaugural batch.

Bottling Details: 46% not chill filtered, natural colour.

Oak Cross

Here is Compass box at its most inventive. Taking the soft, sweet, vanilla – tinged character from whisky aged in American oak casks provide and combining the complex character that aging with best quality French Oak they have created they have created a cask to acquire the best of both.

This has been achieved by combining American Oak bodies with French Oak Heads. After several months in casks of this type the whiskies took on a lovely, subtle extra layer of flavour. Now know as Oak Cross casks.

Oak Cross is a vatted malt from the Highland region whiskies Led by Teaninich and balanced with malts from the village of Brora (for fruitiness) and Carron (for weight) all the whiskies are primary aged approximately for 10 years in a mix of American Oak cask types.

Then carefully married in a mix of first fill American Oak and the “Oak Cross” casks (combined American and French Oak).

Tasting Notes~ A soft palate, with flavour notes of clove and vanilla, accenting to a sweet maltiness and subtle fruit character. Its medium weight, with along finish echoing hints of vanilla and clove.

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