COMPASS BOX
THE FIRST WHISKIES

Whisky Range

When you taste Compass Box whiskies you'll find there is one thing they all have in common: a "house style" that reflects richness, sweetness and softness.

This style derives from a) my use of only American oak (bourbon) casks, b) the distilleries from which I choose my whiskies, c) my careful selection of only whiskies that are perfectly mature; and d) the fact I leave my whiskies free from chill filtering.

My house style seems to engage the connoisseur as much as the whisky newcomer. A London journalist recently wrote that Compass Box is "trying to do for whisky what the new world has done for wine." Maybe she has a point.

I simply want to share the joys of this great stuff with more people. And I believe my house style of richness, sweetness and softness is more in tune with people's tastes today, and it will help me achieve my goal!

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About HEDONISM ...

Have you ever tasted really good grain whisky from Scotland?

Probably not. Most people haven’t, even many serious whisky lovers. Almost no one bottles it.

I believe that great grain whiskies from well chosen casks are the undiscovered treasures of Scotland’s whisky kingdom. That's why I created this whisky called HEDONISM!

HEDONISM is our award winning blend of grain whiskies. We are now in our fourth batch, bottled in August 2002 (it's marked on the back label). Stylistically, this is, (in my humble opinion), a beautiful drink: supple, silky, with elegant, rich flavours of vanilla, toffee, coconut and cocoa. It's also a rare whisky in that it's a blend of casks of grain whiskies from two now-closed distilleries: Cambus, which began distilling grain in Clackmannanshire in 1823; and Caledonian, built in Edinburgh in 1855. Both, sadly, closed within the past dozen years. (Have you ever seen the brick smokestack at Haymarket in Edinburgh? That’s from the old Caledonian distillery!)

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Grain whiskies have been made in Scotland going back to the early part of the 1800s. They are the elegant, almost feminine alter ego to Scotland’s malt whiskies. Most people think of them as the “filler” whiskies in the well-known, commercial blends, but this is far from the whole story. Each grain whisky distillery in Scotland makes a distinctive spirit. And the best grain whiskies--from great casks--are some of the silkiest, sweetest, most mouth-wateringly delicious whiskies in the world.

HEDONISM is like nothing that's been bottled before in Scotland. No one has ever made a "vatted grain" (a blend of grain whiskies from different distilleries) that shows off how delicious Scottish grain whiskies can be!

When I made our first batch of HEDONISM, working with the indefatigable Ewen Mackintosh, I spent over 6 months searching for just a handful of individual casks that had the characteristics I was looking for to create HEDONISM. I went through almost 100 cask samples to find eventually just two that combined perfectly to create the balance of flavours I was trying to achieve. For the second batch, the search for top casks was still painstaking, but made somewhat easier because we were trying to replicate rather than create from thin air.

HEDONISM achieves its balance and complexity of flavours by blending older whisky with perfectly matured prime-aged whisky. The older whiskies contribute the deeper flavours of toffee, dark caramel, maple syrup and toasted cereal; while the younger whiskies complement with fresh vanilla and a candied red fruit (cherry, red currant?) flavour. Each of the whiskies has impeccable mouthfeel--they slip across your tongue and down your throat. The texture of HEDONISM is as supple as can be, with a big sweetness. The finish is a satisfying echo of vanilla, caramel and faint red fruits.

The blend of the two styles, older and younger, is what makes HEDONISM so special, so more-ish. And so unique from anything you've ever had before.

Drink HEDONISM any way you want. The way I drink it depends on the occasion, my mood, the weather--all sorts of factors. But I like it is lovely with just a touch of spring water, or, if you're in the mood, a little ice--it makes a great afternoon or before dinner drink. It also makes a killer Rob Roy cocktail, using just a tiny of red vermouth and one dash of orange or Angostura bitters.

HEDONISM is limited because it is so difficult to find casks of the quality I seek. I will make new batches of HEDONISM every year from the very best casks of grain whisky I come across, and each subsequent batch will be labeled by batch. Their character may change very slightly, batch to batch, based on the character of the casks I’m able to find; but the overall style will be consistent. (In a sense, it’s just like wine--in that I am trying to make a certain style every year from the raw materials mother nature, or, in my case, the whisky mother lode in Scotland, provides.)

HEDONISM is bottled at 43%. It is not chill filtered and is not coloured.

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About ASYLA ...

ASYLA, the second whisky we released, is the first of my grain and malt blends. It's an elegant and approachable whisky that epitomizes the Compass Box house style of richness, sweetness and softness. It's a whisky made for casual drinking, before dinner, outside, in a cocktail, or whatever you like.
It’s a style of Scotch whisky that I've been envisioning for years. What I mean is, I’ve wanted a whisky of the quality and flavour characteristics of the very best small production whisky bottlings (i.e, from great casks, no chill filtering, etc.), but in a style that’s more conducive to drinking casually, glass after glass. ASYLA, given its malty-fruitiness, its vanilla-sweetness and its fullness on the palate, is that style. It's got the complexity and quality that will appeal to serious whisky fans, but also the approachability to intrigue new whisky drinkers, too.

I guess it's like the equivalent of drinking a great craft beer from a small brewery versus a beer from a large commercial brewery. It's really just beer after all, and if you like beer you'll probably like either one. But the difference in character between the two is obvious if you take a moment to consider it. And since we only have a limited amount of drinking time in our lives, why waste it on ordinary stuff when you can drink great stuff??

Blending from individually selected casks without chill filtration is the way to make the kind of whisky I'm talking about. The individual whiskies I've used to make ASYLA were all of a quality that they each could have been bottled as singles; but that would be missing the point. Someone said to me once that this approach to blended whisky is like the creation of a new category of whisky that should be called "Super Blends."

The name ASYLA comes from the plural of the word "asylum." It's simply a word I like because of the various connotations it can have to the things we do that give texture and meaning to our lives. (I first encountered the word in an article about a piece of music written by Thomas Adès, an award-winning young English musician who wrote an orchestral work called ASYLA. Without being too ridiculously philosophical about a bottle of whisky, I just like the different associations the word can have--are we talking sanctuary? madhouse? A little of both? It's up to you.

As for the all-important questions about the whisky itself ... ASYLA is currently a vatting of some gorgeous, soft, sweet Linkwood and Cragganmore on a bed of delicious Cambus grain whiskies. Linkwood, a classic Speyside distillery dating back to the 1820s, is known for delightfully elegant, perfumed and fruity malt whiskies. Cragganmore is the under-appreciated jewel-box of a distillery that sits along the banks of the river Spey, produces a slightly heavier spirit, but one of great finesse. The malts are all from either re-charred American oak hogsheads or first-fill American oak (bourbon) barrels. I pick these types of casks for the additional richness, sweetness and vanilla characters they lend to the whiskies.

The grains (you’ll notice that from here onward I’ll refer to grain whiskies by their nickname as “grains” and likewise malt whiskies as “malts”) come from the now-silent Cambus distillery. I say they create a “bed” for the malt whisky because that’s exactly what they do: they provide the soft, sweet, vanilla-and-toffee-rich foundation of this whisky, as grains should do for any good blend. Some inexpensive blended whiskies use grains as fillers, choosing young, immature whiskies from poor quality, overused casks. (Is it any wonder why grains and blends often have such a poor reputation?) I use grain whiskies for their flavour, their texture and their sweetness. You get grains with these characteristics by picking well-matured casks of top quality, "first fill" American oak.

The importance of grains cannot be overstated. What many people don't realise is that in really good whisky blends, it is the grains that provide the softness and the smoothness. The malts, while providing bigger flavours, actually have more pungency to them--most people would call this "bite". So to make a truly silky, soft whisky blend, you rely on extraordinary grain whiskies as the "bed" on which you lay the malt whiskies.

And you should be happy to know that ASYLA, as with all my whiskies, will get slightly hazy when it gets cold or when you add water because I do no chill filter. ASYLA is only rough filtered with a "guard" filter to keep large bits of wood from clogging the bottling equipment. No pad filters ever get in front of my whiskies! This approach gives you all of the complexity, mouthfeel and pureness of flavour of the component whiskies straight from the casks. You CAN tell the difference. Further, the colour of ASYLA, like all Compass Box whiskies, is the natural colour of the whiskies. No spirit caramel is added. I know of no other blended whiskies made in this way.

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Wij hebben deze whiskies vanaf heden in ons assortiment.
U kunt ze bestellen via het bestelformulier. Uiteraard bent u zeer welkom in onze gezellige speciaalzaak op het Hoofddorpplein 11 te Amsterdam. Hier vindt u een grote selectie whisky's uit de gehele wereld,
welke tegen de scherpste prijzen worden aangeboden.