Compass Box

Compass Box was founded in 2000 by John Glaser, who had worked in the wine trade and for Johnnie Walker before starting out on his own. The company is based in London and works as a whisky maker rather than a distiller: it buys Scotch whisky from distilleries across Scotland and blends it to its own recipes.

The Compass Box style puts a lot of weight on wood, with careful use of first-fill and new French oak casks, and on combining whiskies of different characters. The company has long argued for more openness about what goes into a blend, and it publishes detailed component information for many releases.

Ranges a buyer meets include Hedonism, a blended grain whisky, with special editions such as Hedonism Felicitas; Flaming Heart, a smoky blended malt released in occasional editions; Orchard House; and the Great King Street blends. There are also limited releases such as The Circle, Myths & Legends, Celestial and Delilah's XXV. Many limited editions are made once and not repeated, which makes older bottlings popular with collectors.