A Legend Returns: New Inspiration on an All-Timer
Limited Edition Compass Box Exclusives
“One of the most complex, old school and delicious malts K&L has ever sold and the price is out of this world.” — David Othenin-Girard

A decade ago, we introduced one of the most celebrated spirits exclusives in our history—Compass Box “5th & Harrison,” celebrating our new San Francisco location. An instant best seller, it was one of those magical combinations of incredible aged whisky with gorgeous packaging from one of the world’s most prestigious bottlers. We knew when we opened Culver City that we needed a way to celebrate in style and immediately started a nearly year-long conversation with Compass Box.

The results are finally available today, with a limited run on pre-arrival of a bookend set—one celebrating the 10th anniversary of our 5th and Harrison store, matched with a SoCal inspired rendition for our new Culver City store. The real story, as always, is what’s in the bottle: a blend of 24-year-old Caol Ila, 23 year old Bowmore and 21 year old Glendullan in fresh sherry. All of this is available at our yesteryear release pricing, making it once again one of the best buys on the market, while it lasts.

Compass Box “5th & Harrison II” K&L Exclusive Limited Edition Scotch Malt Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival) $179.99 View

Compass Box “Culver & Sepulveda” K&L Exclusive Limited Edition Scotch Malt Whisky (750ml) (Pre-Arrival) $179.99 View

*Pre-arrival: available for shipment or delivery in April 2025.

David Othenin-Girard
K&L Spirits Buyer
Review Date: January 16, 2025

The privilege of selecting a custom batch of Compass Box cannot be understated. Only a handful of venues have ever been invited to collaborate with the great modern bespoke whisky maker. The blending and bottling of a K&L Exclusive Compass Box, led by the illustrious John Glaser, is one of our crowning achievements in sheer quality. It took us almost five years from the moment we first approached the brand before they agreed to it. That whisky, 5th & Harrison, was a blend of old Caol Ila and sherried Glen Ord—a coupling for the ages. With a killer price and a mysterious label (that was definitely NOT a drawing of any former K&L Spirits buyer), it sold out in just days for $180. Now, the few bottles that remain fetch over $1000 at auction.

Since then, so much has changed. John Glaser has handed the reins over to a new generation of whisky makers, and a new era of collaboration has blossomed. K&L now has a new location in Southern California, and much more. Nearly 10 years to the day that we began the process of creating 5th & Harrison, we’re ready to release a second custom batch, bottled exclusively for K&L Wine Merchants by Compass Box.

The act of blending whisky is one of the most gratifying and complex tasks I’ve had the incredible luck to perform. Blending whisky is not a materialistic endeavor that can be solved by wit and measure. The simple truth of blending is that 1+2≠3, and creating a whisky of great distinction and character is not as simple as just smashing three really good malts together. So, guided by the deft hand of Whisky Making Director and all-around splendid chap James Saxon, I embarked upon a supreme journey.

We loved the original 5th & Harrison style and wanted to stay within that realm. James had an incredible array of wonderful old sherried and peated whiskies to choose from, but it was quickly narrowed down to a few lots. They had old Ardbeg, Highland Park, Caol Ila, Bowmore, and sherried Glendullan or Tormore. I wasn’t simply looking to recreate the flavor profile of the original. Instead, I felt we needed to focus on creating the same experience of unbridled value for your dollar. That immediately ruled out working with Ardbeg—despite the quality of the distillate, it’s not only difficult to integrate, but also VERY expensive after 20 years of age.

I had assumed the same fate would hold true for the other Islay options, but after running the numbers, we found we could use significant portions of Bowmore aged for almost 23 years in ex-bourbon barrels. That product alone would fetch hundreds of dollars in today’s market. We married this with a gorgeous first-fill sherry butt of Glendullan, at least 21 years old. This little-known distillery can offer serious character and complexity when aged in quality casks. So little of it sees high-quality sherry casks, it’s hard to generalize about its character, but this barrel was absolutely first-rate. It brought out the deep tropical fruit and wild, exotic side of the Bowmore.

This original blend was supple and delicious—a 5th & Harrison redux, if you will—but it didn’t quite show the maturity of these two wonderful old spirits. In fact, the whiskies seemed to bring out the hidden youthfulness in each other, a noble trait, though it somehow masked some deeper complexities they exhibited separately. At James’ suggestion, we explored the potential of adding a small amount of old rugged Caol Ila into the blend. This, too, I assumed would be cost-prohibitive, but we forged ahead anyway.

After nearly two and a half decades in refill American oak, the wild, jagged spirit of Caol Ila had smoldered into a dense singularity of salty ocean flavors. It was the feeling of boarding a weathered schooner—salt and tar-covered, with the captain’s pipe wafting as he steadied the wooden tiller. Whiffs of salted fish, sea spray, and diesel smoke completed the harbor scene. Ultimately, this final note brought the new batch together perfectly, retaining the wild freshness while pinpointing both a base and top note that brought forward the deeper elements of the first two malts.

The resulting blend is easily one of my favorite modern bottlings of Scotch in at least a decade. It exemplifies everything we are at K&L, providing a superior experience for an incredible price. I’ll attempt to do it justice here:

• Color: A stunning hue of chestnut (1.2).
• Nose: The finest and oldest things—old teak, cordovan, salt-encrusted rope, mango syrup, balsam, seaweed, bonfire, première eau, and marmalade.
• Palate: Bowmore shines at first, offering salted tropical fruit, fried plantains in honey, grilled lemons. Then, our Glendullan adds wild nutty oxidized rancio, dense spices, and freshly chopped dark chocolate.
• Finish: A heavy dose of lemon oil, old wood, baked orchard fruit, apricot jam, salted almonds, camphor, and smoldering tobacco.

It doesn’t need a drop of water—certainly not more than that, if you must. Bottled at extremely near cask strength (0.1-0.2%) and with no chill-filtration, coloring, or other additives whatsoever.

Today, to commemorate the expansion of K&L into new waters, we launch both 5th & Harrison II and Culver & Sepulveda. These two sister bottlings feature the exact same juice, but each label celebrates the two wonderful cities we call home. In some comedic twist of fate, we’re able to offer these wonders—an old blended malt Scotch whisky—at the exact same price as the previous K&L/Compass Box collaboration from over a decade ago. A true triumph.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Port Charlotte SYC01, 54.4%

https://youtu.be/9LF9ba2qne8

Matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in Syrah (shiraz) wine casks – here we have another addition to the Cask Exploration Series from Bruichladdich.

As good as all of this sounds – heavily peated, fun finish, cask strength, etc. I have a few issues with this bottle.

Starting with the positives, this liquid has such a lively and fresh nose to it. Even with the heavy peat that runs through the core of the product, the wine casks have added such a red fruit, summer berry, and raspberry sauce aroma to the nose. That is quite a remarkable thing to do with a liquid as powerful as Port Charlotte.

The palate is where we run into some of the first problems. There are some extremely vegetal notes that really dominate the overall feel of the whisky, for me anyway. The video goes into a little more detail as to what it actually reminds me of, but it isn’t complimentary. The finish is incredibly long and could actually give Apocalypse Now a challenge for run time, but it is full of those flavours that just don’t sit right with me.

My biggest issue with this bottle is the price. Now I was sent this by Remy Cointreau’s PR team, quite a treat. Thank you! At retail, you’ll be paying £110 a bottle for this…standard Port Charlotte is normally below £50 a bottle for something which is nearly the strength of this wine finish variation. Is the cask that expensive? I know previous releases have been around the same price, the MRC01 release, etc. But I’ve been in a room when people have tried that, and it split the room in half, but not because of the peated element, but because of the wine.

Overall, this is an expensive purchase if you end up going for it, but I believe standard Port Charlotte to be a significantly better bottle for more than half the price of this.

Toast the Bard with this multi-award-winning Scotch for under £40

As the world prepares to celebrate the life and work of Scottish poet, Robert Burns, on Saturday 25 January, Tomatin Distillery has recommended its Legacy single malt as the ideal dram to toast Scotland’s national bard this Burns Night.

Priced at only £36.50, it’s the perfect way to enjoy a drop of Scotland for less.

One of Scotland’s most recognisable historical figures, Burns’ legacy and influence can still be felt more than 200 years later. Holding a similar legacy in Scotch production, Tomatin Distillery has a proud heritage dating back to the 15th century. It has been a home for the whisky-making team’s dedicated craftsmen and their families since the current distillery was established in 1897.

Raise a glass of Tomatin Legacy this Burns Night – an exceptional single malt with history and heritage at its core. 

Tomatin Legacy single malt whisky (70cl, 43% ABV, £36.50)

An exceptional single malt Scotch whisky which celebrates the legacy of Tomatin Distillery and the enduring spirit of its people.

Once established in 1897 in the heart of the idyllic yet isolated village of Tomatin, the distillery needed a workforce to manage production; the local inhabitants were scattered shepherds and cattle drovers. The company began a construction project to accommodate its workforce and since then, the distillery has been at the heart of the community. Today, Tomatin is one of the few remaining distilleries which provides homes on site for the dedicated craftspeople who distil its single malt whisky. Legacy is a nod to this story.

This unpeated single malt boasts aromas of vanilla bean, white chocolate and cinnamon. Time spent in bourbon barrels and virgin oak casks brings a light sweetness to Tomatin Legacy, with a palate of gentle waves of fresh fruit peppered with ginger leading into a light, clean finish. 

Tomatin Legacy Tasting Notes

• Nose – Opens with a burst of bourbon barrel sweetness – aromas of custard cream biscuits, white chocolate, vanilla bean, white sugar and golden syrup, before hints of sandalwood, desiccated coconut and cinnamon give a nod to the use of virgin American oak.
• Palate – Waves of sweet vanilla and fresh fruit with a gentle touch of white pepper and ginger. The quality of the Tomatin spirit is on full display here, with Pink Lady apples, rhubarb, and candied orange peel.
• Finish – Fruit and oak combine to create a clean yet intriguing finish.

Available at https://tomatin.com/shop and specialist whisky retailers.

Notes 

Tomatin is located in the Scottish Highlands, 16 miles south of Inverness, and is famous for its portfolio of refined and elegant whiskies.  The distillery has a proud heritage stretching back to the 15th century when illicit production was likely to be taking place, but it wasn’t until 1897 that the first formal distillery was established by John MacDougall as the Tomatin Spey Distillery Company.

In 2022, Tomatin was awarded ‘Scotch Whisky Producer of the Year’ and ‘Outstanding Spirits Producer of the Year’ at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC). Later that year, it was recognised as ‘Sustainable Distillery of the Year’ at Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky 2023, in recognition of its continued contribution to sustainably at the distillery.

In 2023, Tomatin’s success continued when the distillery’s ‘Legacy’ was awarded Gold at IWSC. That same year, Tomatin also took home seven awards at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, while Cù Bòcan, took home three. Tomatin’s 36 Year Old was crowned the ultimate winner at SFWSC for malts, being named ‘Best in Show’, officially making it one of the best whiskies in the world.

Building upon this triumph, 2024 saw Tomatin’s 18 Year Old secured Double Gold for the third consecutive year at the SFWSC, elevating it to Platinum status. Meanwhile, both Tomatin’s 45 Year Old and 12 Year Old, alongside Cù Bòcan’s 15 Year Old took home Double Gold Awards, and Cù Bòcan’s 12 Year Old also secured a prestigious Gold Award.

‘To What Matters’ is the latest chapter in the brand’s evolution; it is a positive call to arms that represents the spiritual DNA of Tomatin – a belief in savouring what is truly important in life and time spent together.

Tomatin is owned by the Japanese company Takara Shuzo International: www.takara-intl.co.jp/en/

Compass Box “5th & Harrison II” K&L Exclusive Dual Label Limited Edition Scotch Malt Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival) $179.99 View

Compass Box “Culver & Sepulveda” K&L Exclusive Dual Label Limited Edition Scotch Malt Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival) $179.99 View

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Port Dundas (silent) Signatory – Cask Strength Single Grain Whisky 28 Year Old 

1995 Vintage 70cl · 59.7% ABV

£129.95

A single cask single grain release from the closed Port Dundas distillery, bottled by Signatory in their Cask Strength Collection range. Distilled on 26 June 1995, matured for 28 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead and bottled in December 2023. Only 215 bottles were produced, each individually numbered.

Old Pulteney “Huddart” Ex-Peated AnCnoc Cask Finished Single Malt Whisky (750ml) (Previously $60) $19.99 View

2008 Port Dundas 15 Year Old “Signatory” K&L Exclusive Refill Oloroso Sherry Cask Strength Non Chillfiltered Lowland Single Grain Scotch Whisky (700ml) $54.99 View

Sutherland Bottled By Thompson Bros. 5 Year Old Limited 2024 Release Blended Highland Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) $99.99 View

2007 Glengoyne 16 Year Old “Old Malt Cask” K&L Exclusive Single Refill Sherry Butt Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky (700ml) $109.99 View

Scapa 21 year old Orkney Single Malt Whisky (700ml) $159.99 View

2005 Secret Orkney (Highland Park) 19 Year Old “Signatory” K&L Exclusive #DRU 17/A63 #28 First Fill Oloroso Sherry Butt Cask Strength Non Chillfiltered Orkney Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) $179.99 View

Old Grand-Dad 16 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (750ml) $199.99 View

Kanosuke “Ex-Bourbon Barrel Finished” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Barrel #18120 Japanese Single Malt Whiskey (700ml) $209.99 View

Little Book “Edition I: The Infinite” Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (750ml) $219.99 View

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

The Good Dram Show – Episode 579 ‘Glaschu Spirits’

Welcome to this week’s episode of the show, in which I’ll be taking a look at a selection of releases from Glasgow based Independent bottling company, Glaschu Spirits. The Good Dram Show with Chris Goodrum Episode 579 – Does It Float My Flying Boat?!!

Filmed in The Study Nottingham

Featuring

Glaschu Spirits Company Tomintoul 2016 (7 year old) 50%
Glaschu Spirits Company Burnside 2011 (12 year old) 50%
Glaschu Spirits Company Teaninich 2011(13 year old) 50%
Glaschu Spirits Company Macduff 2007 (16 year old) 50%
Glaschu Spirits Company Macduff 2007 (16 year old) 50%
Glashu Spirits Coal Ila 2012 (12 year old) 50%

How Johnnie Walker Ultra took a leap into the future

The launch of Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra in September caused quite a wave. Luxury in look and feel, 70cl in volume but weighing in at only 180g, it’s a boundary-breaking innovation. But with less than 900 being made, the question might be: why? Jeremy Lindley, Diageo’s Global Design Director has answered this and shown how luxury design innovation can feed the hunger for carbon savings.

Jeremy Lindley and his team have had input into almost every design project at Diageo over the last 18 years.

However, the unveiling of Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra last month is perhaps a career highlight – a challenge to create glass packaging for Blue Label that is not only luxury but ultra lightweight and is what we believe to be the world’s lightest whisky glass bottle.

Here he explains more about his role, the Ultra project and how lightweighting in luxury can have a major impact in all parts of the industry.

Jeremy Lindley, Global Design Director, Diageo

“We drink first with our eyes…”

The Design team’s role is to grow Diageo’s capability and output in design. Over time we’ve been able to help the company understand how design can be a growth driver for the business.

Consumers make their decisions based on emotions… and we drink first with our eyes. Of course, then the taste has to be fabulous! My job is to help people understand the importance of visual appeal, of beauty and emotional connection – and then help deliver that.

It is important that all of our products look amazing, but the further you go into luxury the more critical our input becomes.

Execution is really important as well, and we really know how to properly use production techniques like embossing and foiling and all those things that you wouldn’t explicitly notice, but add to the premium feel.

Making Blue Label Ultra…

As a premium drinks company, we’re always thinking about the future of luxury. We observed some brands and luxury categories were starting to move away from ostentatious into understated, more lightweight packaging and products. So, we asked the question, instead of luxury being heavy, what if it was light, delicate, beautiful, and then, of course, you get the carbon benefits from that as well.
We started off brand agnostic – but then Johnnie Walker did become the focus. Blue Label is our iconic, global luxury brand and I loved the challenge of exploring how luxury can also be light and not always heavy.

Teardrop in the fire…

The first thing we did was discover from glass blowers that the lightest, strongest glass bottle you can make is a teardrop shape. It’s the the natural shape that a gob of glass takes under gravity’.

Glass is an amazing material to work with, it’s made from readily available raw materials (mostly sand), can be infinitely recycled and it’s inert – having no impact on the flavour of what you put in the bottle. But it takes a lot of energy to heat sand to 1500 degrees and mould to the viscosity like honey. You can’t control where the glass goes – it flows where it wants to under gravity. You have to make the glass thick enough to be sufficiently strong all over so it’s strong enough at its thinnest point.

Having first hand-blown the glass into this teardrop shape where the wall thickness is even all round, then we started asking, how could we play with the shape? What aspects of the Johnnie Walker bottle shape can I add in? So we added Johnnie Walker neck, shoulders and hinted at the squareness without adding weight. We had to keep the rounded base, which is one of the things that makes it impossible for mass manufacture.

While created very thin, the Ultra bottle still used a mould

Just keep walking…

At multiple points through the process, I had people tell me that it was impossible to achieve a bottle this weight. Initially, people said you can’t get below 400 grams. And then over time, I was told 300 grams was too challenging. We pushed and pushed and kept making bottles lighter until they broke. The backing and support from the business was fantastic, the patience to keep going until we found the lightest bottle that would still pass our safety checks.

Releasing the patent…

It’s standard practice to register our design work and to examine if we have come up with an idea that is sufficiently novel to be granted a patent. And it took us five years of designing, testing and learning to get it right. And now we want to share the knowledge with the wider industry so anyone can use them and can start to build the lightweighting elements into their designs – as a general rule when glass is lighter, there’s a carbon reduction benefit. We hope that by releasing the patent we will not just make an impact on our own products but on the whole glass industry.

The future of light weighting glass…

Due to the craftmanship in hand-blowing and hand filling the bottles, it limits the number of bottles we can sell. But the great thing is that getting to this extreme light weight has taught us so much and we are already applying the learnings to our core portfolio and finding ways to take significant weight out.

One of the analogies I’ve used is that the process has been like creating a concept car. Manufacturers put all of their latest tech into a very limited number of handmade concept cars to stretch their learning. And then later they think, how do we apply this to our mass-produced cars? For this project we stripped away every requirement other than consumer safety. That has allowed us to achieve the world’s lightest 70cl glass whisky bottle and then the learnings have taught us how to design out weight. Going to the extreme has taught us so much more about glass lightweighting, rather than just learning about shaving little bits of weight off the bottle.

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr – A Happy New Year to you!

As 2025 gets underway we’ve been reflecting on last year’s remarkable achievements for this Outer Hebridean purpose-driven enterprise.

In 2024 we were proud to have brought our island spirit and story to 25 countries around the world and welcome over 70,000 people through our doors here in Tarbert.

We launched a new whisky expression The Hearach Oloroso Cask Matured, collaborated with Selfridges (and others) on a limited single cask bottling, and released a new Yellow Ceilidh Bottle to mark the second year of our Harris Cèilidh Tent at the Hebridean Celtic Festival, and more…

The Hearach, our inaugural single malt whisky, received recognition for its exceptional quality, receiving top honours such as Best Islands Single Malt at the International Whisky Competition, and gold awards at both the Berlin and London Spirits Competitions.

Reflecting on the year that was, Managing Director, Simon Erlanger tells us…

“2024 was a landmark year for our team. We are immensely proud of the recognition our work has received, but even more so of the role we continue to play in supporting our community and sharing the spirit of Harris with the world. These achievements are a testament to the passion, creativity, and resilience of our team.

We are inspired by another year ahead of exciting collaborations and new releases, as we approach a decade since the company began with just the ‘Tarbert 10’ – now with over 40 Hearaich working towards the same mission, the team can look back with pride on their incredible achievements.”  

As we begin to look forward, we’re reminded that we were built to address the economic challenges of the Outer Hebrides, and that with your support we will continue to embody a vision of creating a sustainable future for the island and its people.

Through world-class spirits, local employment, and global collaborations, the distillery remains committed to customers like you and our shared mission of making a lasting, positive impact on Harris and beyond.

2025 promises lots more good things still to come, but meantime a huge thanks to you for being part of the success story and being with us as we grow!

Le gach deagh dhùrachd,

Mike Donald, Chief Storyteller

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