Compass Box Ultramarine Blended Scotch Whisky

Compass Box Ultramarine Blended Scotch Whisky is the first bottle in the Extinct Blends Quartet, a limited 2022 release of 5,430 bottles at 102 proof. Lead whiskymaker James Saxon built it as a tribute to the deluxe blended Scotches of the late 1980s, the kind that married old-school sherry casks to a haunting, maritime peat. It is blended Scotch, malt and grain together: Caol Ila for gentle smoke, Glendullan and other malts from sherry-seasoned wood, Girvan and Cameronbridge grain for cream and toffee, plus pre-blended parcels already aged in sherry. More than 30 percent of the blend saw sherry casks. The name is the Latin for “beyond the sea” and for the pigment once worth more than gold. Natural colour, not chill-filtered. This is not Vellichor.

Toffee, antique polished oak, and layered peat smoke open the glass, with vanilla and a cigar-box edge. The palate is roasted pecan, raisin, and smoke, then citrus, toasted nuts, and malty chocolate. It is smooth for the proof, with a long finish of dried fruit, oak char, and that ethereal peat that never turns ashy.