Austin 19 June 2025 Compass Box Michael Stephenson Drammers Whisky and Spirits Club Whiskey single malt scotch bourbon rye mezcal DRINQY Slackjaw.png
Austin 19 June 2025 Compass Box Michael Stephenson Drammers Whisky and Spirits Club Whiskey single malt scotch bourbon rye mezcal DRINQY Slackjaw.png

Jun. 19: Drammers Austin -w- Compass Box Whiskymaker Michael Stephenson......

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Hello Austin Drammers!

We’re excited to announce a special tasting on June 19th at 7pm with Michael Stephenson, a lead whiskymaker at Compass Box, the legendary makers of great blended Scotch whiskies. Word is it he’s being trained as Lead Whiskymaker James Saxon’s understudy of sorts, and this will be our first events with him (he will be in town visiting from the UK doing events with us in LA, Chicago and Austin). A big thank you to Dan Salter for organizing and to John Orton for hosting us (address: 501 west ave, 6th Floor, Austin 78701). We’ve got a great lineup for the event:

  • Flaming Heart 25th Anniversary Edition - Their celebrated “Flaming Heart” blended malt Scotch whisky was first launched in 2006, and their newest 8th edition has just been released, and will not likely be available for long (to give you an idea, the prior 7th edition was released in 2022). Whereas previous editions have featured a proportion of unpeated whiskies aged in bourbon or sherry casks, for this eighth instalment they selected only peated whiskies and those extra-matured in custom French oak barrels, using malt whiskies from the Benrinnes, Laphroaig, “Williamson” and Talisker distilleries. 48.9% abv. Not Chill-Filtered, Natural Colour.

  • Hedonism (2025 Limited Edition). We’re still adapting to a world in which Compass Box’s Hedonism release is not regularly available, but at least we have these (quite limited) annual special editions to soften the blow. If you’re not familiar with that, here’s what happened — The idea behind this expression was to pay homage to the tradition of grain whisky distillation in Scotland, but over the years, demand for high-quality grain whisky has increased, making the calibre of whisky they required for Hedonism ever harder to find. So, in 2024, Hedonism became a limited annual release, appearing once a year in (very) limited quantities, each a different interpretation of that classic Hedonism style. For 2025, they upped the ABV to 46%, featuring single grain from Cameronbridge Distillery, further matured for two years in a first-fill Marsala barrique.

  • Metropolis - The third release in their high-end Extinct Blends Quartet, this one (according to online sources) was an attempted recreation of the legendary Bailie Nicol Jarvie blend (which historically was largely driven by Glenmorangie juice), and reflected the Glasgow style of whisky that had a little more peat and heft to it.

  • Single Marrying Cask #65. Last year, as part of the larger shakeup of their lineup, Compass Box quietly shut down their single barrel program, which they called “single marrying casks” since they create a blend first and then rebarrel that blend to identify interesting variations from the single barrels. Here they took their somewhat peaty Glasgow Blend and finished it in an ex-Cameronbridge cask, which became a Drammers Club pick.  Big Cocoa Puffs notes on this one. $54.99 / bottle.

  • All 4 Expressions in their NEW Core range: Last year Compass Box did a major shake up of their core range, deciding to discontinue two of the 5 expressions (The Spice Tree and Story of the Spaniard) and making a 3rd expression (Hedonism) a very limited once-a-year offering rather than the regularly-available core-range product it has long been. In place of that they added two new expressions this past September:

    • Nectarosity - This was just launched in September, featuring a blend of Linkwood, Clynelish, Cameronbridge, Girvan and a little bit of Balmenach. The result shows off rich, honeyed fruits. And it’s definitely worth nothing that they’re being aggressive about making this one affordable, weighing in at just $44.99 / bottle. 46% abv.

    • Crimson Casks - This new sherry-focused expression replaces the old sherry-focused expression that was Story of the Spaniard. According to a Whisky Advocate article at the time of the launch of Crimson Casks, the Compass Box team determined that “there was too much of an overlap between Spaniard and Spice Tree in terms of flavor and storytelling—as both were Highlands-dominant blended malts focused on wood. “It wasn't that they did anything wrong,” he said. “They just kind of played in each other’s territory a bit.” The solution was to combine elements of both into this new expression: Crimson Casks. 46% abv / $66.99 / bottle

    • Orchard House - This whisky was launched back in 2021, an early creation by James Saxon back when John Glaser was still running the company. As the name makes clear, this blend draws on whiskies from Clynelish and Linkwood finished in Palo Cortado sherry, aiming square at the bright/fresh apples and pears flavor space. 46% / $51.99 / bottle.

    • The Peat Monster - Even thought this is the only longstanding member of the core range to survive the shakeup, the reality is this famously peaty blended whisky has evolved over time. Today over 63% of the blend originates at Caol Ila in various cask types, plus another 35% from Laphroaig, leaving a mere 1% of malt whisky coming from off Islay. 46% abv / $69.99 / bottle.

That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! We’ll order in light food (likely pizza, included) to try to make sure nobody is drinking on an empty stomach. And, as always, we strongly encourage everyone to arrange a ride home — remember we’ll be tasting through a lot of whisky! Please let us know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Charlie, Dan and Drammers Club