Compass Box, the London-based independent bottler and whisky maker of ethereal Scotch blends and blended malts, has traditionally sourced its whiskies from Scotland’s long-established heritage distilleries. In June of 2023, they broke with tradition to collaborate with Bimber Distillery, a small, West London craft distillery that laid down its first casks of malt whisky in 2016. The result is a blend that breaks new ground in independent bottling — and may hint at opportunities to come for craft distillers.
Together, the West London neighbors launched two expressions of their collaboration. The recipe for both releases is 60 percent peated whisky from barrels and 40 percent unpeated whisky from ex-sherry casks. Compass Box Duality is a classy, limited edition marriage of Islay’s Ardbeg (with a “teaspoon” of Caol Ila) and a Pedro Ximenez–matured malt whisky from Bimber. And it marks the whisky maker’s first foray into sourcing malt whisky outside Scotland.
“The landscape of whisky around the world has changed enormously since Compass Box began in 2000,” says erudite American transplant John Glaser, founder of Compass Box. “There is an entire new tier of producers keen to do things differently, operating at a scale where they can follow their own inclinations and passions. As blenders, we are very keen to work with anyone producing delicious whisky, of any size, from anywhere.”
Compass Box’s lead whisky maker, James Saxon, impressed with his neighbor’s fruit-forward malt whiskies, reached out to Bimber in late 2020 to see if they would be willing to provide whisky of a certain profile for a future Compass Box release. “The Bimber team were keen to do more than just sell us spirit,” explains Glaser, “so, once we had found a compelling combination of aged Islay single malt and Bimber matured in PX sherry as proof of concept, we began the Duality project together.”
“The overarching idea of Duality is taking heavy peat and combining it with sherry casks,” Glaser continues. “The Compass Box expression is heavier, simply owing to the stronger phenolic character of our peated component relative to Bimber’s. The principles of rich texture and aromatic expressiveness are common to both releases, though.”
To complete the collaboration, Bimber swapped their PX sherry cask for a first-fill sherry butt from Speyside’s Glendullan Distillery, sourced by Compass Box. The distillery married the Glendullan with a peated malt of their own, drawn from a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel. The Bimber name comes from the Polish word for moonshine (the founder is Polish), and the distillery is just along the Tube from Chiswick-based Compass Box. Matt McKay is their director of marketing and communications.
“Duality is a meeting of minds and approaches between two London whisky makers,” McKay explains. “Indeed, the name of the bottle(s) implies this very aspect alongside the similarities and contrasts that are presented within the whiskies themselves. Together with the growth of craft distilling comes the equally exciting broadening canvas of profiles and characters that can be used to sculpt thought-provoking whiskies. I’d certainly hope that over time we’ll see that canvas explored.”
Born and raised in the Highlands of Scotland, Stuart MacLean Ramsay writes and educates about whisky, whiskey, and craft beer.
RamsaysDram.com.
