Our 20th Anniversary Celebrations Have Begun

How was your weekend?

We had a great Sunday hosting our latest virtual tasting, and hope everyone who joined us – from as far as Australia, Panama, and South Africa – felt the same. The Zoom event brought Compass Box fans from over 35 countries together to hear about the evolution of Hedonism into our latest limited edition, Hedonism Felicitas. But if you weren’t able to drop in, here are a few highlights.

Celebrating the original

When Founder John Glaser was creating the first release for Compass Box, he remembers being ‘accused’ of adopting a hedonistic – as opposed to scientific – approach to whisky blending. He took it as a compliment, and that’s where the name came from.

Launching the latest

Where does the name come from? In ancient Roman culture, ‘felicitas’ was considered a condition of divinely inspired productivity, blessedness or happiness. We feel very lucky to have been creating whiskies for 20 years, so this word felt perfect.

Watch the tasting

If you missed the event, or would like to see it again, you can watch the tasting here. You are also welcome to download the Set-up guide, Tasting mat and Q&A if you want to follow along with this live recording at home.

It’s our birthday month

Compass Box started in October 2000, so throughout the coming month we’ll be celebrating our 20 year anniversary with you. There is a virtual tasting with our friends in California taking place tonight. John will be joining live from London at 4am BST! If you haven’t already registered, do check the K&L website for details. The Whisky Exchange is taking The Whisky Show online from the 2nd – 9th October and we’ve been invited by Royal Mile Whiskies to lead two special tastings, featuring whiskies from our archives, on the 15th and 22nd October. There is plenty more yet to be announced – we’re really excited to share the festivities with you.

A new limited edition born out of an experiment

Brace yourselves, because a new Compass Box whisky is about to be unleashed, and it’s a little mysterious. Peat Monster Arcana will be making its entrance in October – keep an eye on your local specialist retailers for details or visit our webshop.

Hellos and farewells

As we welcome Peat Monster Arcana, we prepare for the departure of Oak Cross. Our recipes must continually evolve as supplies of whiskies fluctuate but, after many trials, we don’t think the character of Oak Cross can be faithfully recreated without whiskies of the right ages from the Clynelish and Dailuaine Distilleries. These components can no longer be sourced. Oak Cross will always be a special creation for us so it’s with a heavy heart that we close this chapter, at least for the time being. It will be departing from the U.S. over the coming months but will still be available elsewhere throughout 2021 so we can be sure we all give it a good send-off.

Stay tuned for details on a new expression which will be joining the Malt Whisky Collection next year.

The Compass Box Team