If there’s a serving suggestion for Compass Box Metropolis, it should be one that’s nothing to do with glassware or recipes but instead this: sip it whisky somewhere meaningful. Somewhere that’s relevant to your own history, perhaps, or just somewhere that reminds you that you’re part of a long chain of human endeavour that has – for all its flaws – produced an endless list of things worth celebrating.
That might sound fanciful, but Compass Box Metropolis is all about ‘tasting through time’, reviving an experience lost to the past and celebrating the richness of life – particularly in the bustling city. We were lucky enough to taste it in Sir John Soane’s house near London’s Holborn station, a beautiful and incredibly atmospheric museum dedicated to the renowned 18th century architect whose work drew heavily on Classical architecture. The confluence of liquid and physical history was inspired.
Metropolis is a limited edition whisky that forms the third part of Compass Box’s Extinct Blends Quartet. This series is, according to the whiskymakers themselves, “an homage to blends that have been lost to history. Whilst extinct distilleries can be revived – mash tuns refilled and stills heated up again, blends of the past cannot be recreated at scale. These formulae encapsulate specific moments in time – the result of relationships, ideas and people. With each whisky in this series, Compass Box takes inspiration from these vanished characters and flavours, reappraising four very different expressions of blended Scotch, using some of their most precious parcels of whisky.”
The phrase extinct blends might evoke images of dusty old whiskies created many decades long ago, but the second release in the Quartet is actually based on something much more recent. The soft, supple Delos, made with Glen Elgin, Imperial, Cameronbridge and Miltonduff, is a recreation of one of Compass Box’s own blends: Asyla. This delicious, delicate, ‘everyday’ whisky was introduced in 2001 and produced until 2018 – which seems like yesterday. The disappearance of this whisky, which used to retail for around £35, is a timely reminder to savour things while you can.
Metropolis follows both Delos and the first in the series, Ultramarine, which pays tribute to one of the most famous blends in whisky history. The inspiration for Metropolis – as you’ll have gathered from the name – is the city, and in particular the Scottish cities that were so important to the development of both grain whisky and of blends. Glasgow was famed for being home to rich and smoky blended whiskies, and in tribute Metropolis is a recreation of a a ‘buttery, vibrant whisky’ with a high malt content and honeycomb note that was last seen on shelves about a decade ago. Compass Box have combined these characteristics with heavily-aged sherry-matured parcels and a touch of smoke, to pay tribute to the richness of life in the bustling, urban jungle.
Tasting notes:
Nose: Sour dried cherries, vanilla custard, crunchy green apple, cigar box, lemon tart, apricot frangipane and pink raspberry icing.
Palate: A rounded, oily texture. It’s closed at first, before a massive burst of lusciously juicy fruit: in particular orange peel, dried apricot, peaches, Bakewell tart and hints of more tropical fruits. Alongside this is smoky oak, spiced dark hot chocolate, pasteis de nata and hints of rancio.
Finish: Endless waves of fruit, with a few toasted wooden planks adrift on top of them.
Comment: Regardless of whether or not you know the blend it’s based on, this is gorgeous dram and bottled at a pitch-perfect ABV. One for the ages.
