Compass Box Ultramarine - The Extinct Blends Quartet (70cl, 51%)

Ultramarine is the first release in Compass Box's Extinct Blends Quartet, a blended Scotch made from matured malt and grain whiskies together with already-married blends. It draws on the sherry and pipe tobacco character of a blend whose early bottlings date from the late 1980s and early 1990s. James Saxon composed it. The recipe has eleven components from Bourbon, sherry and heavily toasted French oak casks, with Caol Ila, Girvan and Glendullan the largest parts. It was bottled in August 2022 at 51%, in an edition of 5,430 bottles, non-chill-filtered with colour from the casks alone. The nose offers toffee and old polished oak with layered peat. The palate brings toasted pecans and raisins with smoke, and the long finish has crisp green apple and lasting grapefruit.