Beloved independent blender and bottler Compass Box is putting the final touches on their Extinct Blends Quartet with the last of the set of four blended Scotch expressions - the Compass Box Extinct Blends Quartet Celestial.

The Extinct Blends Quartet was created to pay homage to some of the team's favourite blends of yesteryear that have continued to hold historic importance and inspire fans to the heights of blended Scotch whisky.

The first three expressions of the series - Ultramarine, Delos and Metropolis were released over the last year, and will finally be complete with the last of the four, the Celestial.

The Extinct Blends Quartet

Fashions change, and formulae follow suit. Blended whiskies of the 1970s, '80s and '90s are very different to today's versions, even when the brand name remains the same. The Extinct Blends Quartet, as it unfolds, will reimagine four of our favourite blended Scotches from yesteryear, using some of our rarest and most idiosyncratic stocks of whisky.

Celestial

"Across the four releases, we have also conjured up different regions and elements of the blended Scotch whisky world. From its beginnings with Ultramarine and the wild coasts, we end with Celestial and a headlong flight through the clouds.

The blended Scotch whisky from which we have drawn our inspiration for Celestial was also associated with travel, albeit of the terrestrial kind, and was born in an era that depended on horsepower in its most literal sense. Celestial boasts more peatiness than the extinct blend in question, drawing on malt whiskies from the Ardbeg and Caol Ila distilleries.

The combination of smoke and succulent fruit is truly otherworldly, depicted in the coils and columns of cloud shown on the label. A gleaming brightness is provided by malt whiskies from the Glen Elgin and Pulteney distilleries, a quality we have chosen to represent with the constellations.

Peaty, with clove-like spice, honeyed fruit, and a depth of creamy oakiness from aged grain whiskies, Celestial is our most expansive whisky in the Extinct Blends Quartet. It reveals the lofty altitudes one can reach with the best fusions of malt and grain Scotch whiskies."

The new Compass Box Extinct Blends Quartet Celestial is bottled at 50% ABV.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team