Monday, March 30, 2015

COMPASS BOX CELEBRATES FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY WITH THE RELEASE OF HEDONISM QUINDECIMUS

Compass Box, one of Scotland’s leading artisan whisky makers, has announced the launch of a new limited edition blended grain Scotch whisky, to tie in with its year-long 15th Birthday celebrations.

Hedonism Quindecimus (46% ABV) has been created specifically to commemorate Compass Box’s fifteenth anniversary. Quindecimus (meaning ‘fifteenth’) pays homage to the renowned whisky makers first ever product, Hedonism – the blended grain whisky that has been widely credited with starting the resurgence in popularity of this once-neglected style of Scotch. 

Compass Box Hedonism Quindecimus - Limited to 5,689 Bottles

Made using a blend of five separate parcels of aged grain whisky, Compass Box has taken the highly unusual step of revealing the precise age and sourcing of every cask that went into Quindecimus. 

Compass Box’s detailed sourcing information reveals that five parcels of whisky from four distilleries were used to create Hedonism Quindecimus: Parcels of 20 Year Old and 25 Year Old grain whisky distilled at Port Dundas were combined with 32 Year Old whisky from Dumbarton, 20 Year Old whisky from North British and a 32 Year Old parcel of ‘mystery’ pre-blended grain whisky sourced from Loch Lomond distillery, for which the exact provenance is unknown.

Commenting on this decision, Founder, John Glaser said: “Since I launched Compass Box back in 2000, we’ve expressed our belief in the need to be transparent regarding how we make our whiskies. With the recent increase in the number of Non Age Statement whiskies at the lower end of the market, we feel it’s important to share with people the details on the ages of all the whiskies in a product such as this. We have always held that age isn’t everything in whisky, but in this case we want people to be aware of age and the rarity that goes along with aged grain whiskies of this quality level. We believe our customers have the right to know what it is they’re drinking."

He went on to say: “Blending grain whiskies of varying ages can create compelling juxtapositions of flavour. The truly old grain adds unctuousness and weight, while the younger whiskies bring with them an energy, a drinkability and the irrepressible joie de vivre of youth. The result is surprising and complex. Deep, sweet caramel coconut succulence combines with bright tropical fruit to create a profusion of flavours that demonstrate the layered complexity you can get from the interplay between grain spirit and American oak over the course of time."

Limited to 5,689 bottles, Compass Box’s Hedonism Quindecimus will be available from specialist retailers from April 15th.

Source: Compass Box