Compass Box The Story of the Spaniard
Compass Box was founded in 2000 by American John Glaser and quickly made a name for themselves by bottling and marketing a range of blended scotch. While Compass Box found early notoriety for its conflicts with the Scotch Whisky Association but over the years they have gone from being outsiders to being respected innovators with numerous industry awards under their belts. The Story of the Spaniard is meant to be a showcase of sherry and the influence the fortified wine can have on scotch. Each of the several blends has some component of sherry maturation. The story behind the Story is a nod to Glaser’s first experience with sherry during travels in Spain.
Highland Park 18 Year
Highland Park has been making whisky for over 200 centuries. One of the reasons for this longevity, besides producing good spirit, is that it’s not afraid to take risks and reinvent itself. The latest rebranding happened in 2017, when some standard bottlings were pulled (the 15 year, alas) and the current slate was given new bottle designs and new names, all without changing the liquid contained in those new bottles. The Highland Park 18 has been a standard offering for many years but now comes with the additional moniker Viking Pride (much like the 12 year is now Viking Honour). While we can’t fault the distillery for tapping into their legitimate geographical heritage, we’re just happy the scotch itself remains unchanged.
Fifty Stone
Maine Craft Distilling was founded in 2012 by Luke Davidson and Fred Farber. Like many in the new wave of craft distilling, Luke experimented with a private still (in his barn) after malting grain for local brewers and eventually tried his hand at whiskey, inspired by scotch but using ingredients native to Maine. Like a very few Scottish distilleries, Maine Craft Distilling is a malt-to-barrel operation, with many of the machinery from Scotland. While the distillery makes rums, vodkas, gins and brandy – including a curious blueberry liqueur – the Fifty Stone is their only whiskey. Named after the old British unit of measure, fifty stones was traditionally the weight of barley required to make a barrel of whiskey (one stone usually equaled 14 pounds). The barley is smoked using Maine peat and Maine seaweed. Purportedly made in the Highland (we assume that equates to Scottish) style.