Compass Box’s New Scotch Aims to Recreate a Cult Whisky From the 1960s

Jonah Flicker
·2 min read

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If we learned anything from Jurassic Park, it’s that it’s probably best not to resurrect creatures from the past, but it seems that the team at blending house and self-described “whiskymakers” Compass Box either never saw this movie or just ignored the carnage. Granted, scotch whisky is not likely to tear your head off, so it’s likely that the new Compass Box Celestial—a re-creation of a cult whisky from the ’50s and ’60s—will be safe enough to keep and drink.

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Celestial is the fourth and last release in Compass Box’s Extinct Blends Quartet, a series of whiskies that are meant to recapture the character of past releases by creating new blends which adhere closely to their predecessors in terms of flavor. According to the brand, Celestial was a blended scotch produced in the 1950s and 1960s that had key liquid components from an Islay distillery and a Speyside distillery. It is said to be founded by one of the original Whisky Barons, a group of men (and they were virtually only men then) who were key to the scotch whisky industry in the early 20th century, names like James Buchanan and Tommy Dewar. Compass Box got its hand on a bottle and discovered, in the brand’s own words, “[a] ghostly peat note, abundant cask sweetness verging on gingerbread and stem ginger in syrup, and a floral fruitiness.”

The new Celestial expression isn’t an exact recreation of the original, of course, but it’s a tribute and an homage. It’s the peatiest expression in the Extinct Blends Series, due to the use of whisky from two Islay distilleries known for making smoky single malts—Ardbeg and Caol Ila. “Celestial’s flavor profile elicits heavyweight peat smoke,” said James Saxon, the recently appointed Compass Box whiskymaking director, in a statement. “Behind that is a gingery richness, notes of vanilla and grilled apples. The palate is dry and oak-forward, with meaty smokiness flowing onto cooked tropical fruits.”

In keeping with the name of the whisky, the label design features a night sky with puffy clouds, representing the whisky’s smoky character, and the Pegasus constellation to evoke the celestial theme. This is a limited-edition whisky which will be available here in the U.S. (SRP $375) starting April 4 in a run of just 5,532 bottles. If you’d like to try other Compass Box whiskies, including previous Extinct Blends Series releases, they are available now from ReserveBar.

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