Indie bottler, Compass Box, is setting out to revive and recreate some fantastic and legendary whisky blends of the past 70's, 80's and 90's with their Extinct Blends Quartet. The series has seen two releases thus far, the Ultramarine and the Delos. And now, the third release in the 4-part series is the Metropolis.

According to the back label, Metropolis is inspired as such,

"For the third release in the series, we step into the throng of a striving city. Industriousness jostles up against elaborate architecture, people and provisions from diverse places mingle; commerce meets culture.

Blended Scotch whisky began in the metropolis, with blending vats in Glasglow and Edinburgh producing bottles for urban jungles around the world. The sould of blended Scotch continues to reside in the city.

Metropolis takes inspiration from a recently extinct blended Scotch with a long history and a strong link to a Sir Walter Scott novel in which a number of urban centres are references. Therefore, we have chosen a city as the setting for our reimagining of this oak-forward and revered whisky.

If Metropolis were an actual city, its chief thoroughfares and grand buiildings would equate to the shortbread and honey notes contributed by malt whiskies from the Aberlour and Miltonduff distilleries. A parcel of blended Scotch whisky further matured in Sherry butts brings a fatness and dried fruit richness, acting as a bridge over a ricer of creamy and zesty grain whisky. Subtle scents of hot metal and smoke drift in from the shipyards, courtesy of malt whiskies from the Bowmore Distillery.

Charming, refined and alive with energy, Metropolis reflects the excitement and richness of life in the city."

Parsing the back label, we take a look at Sir Walter Scott's literary portfolio which includes the likes of Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and Lady of the Lake.

The novel that best fits the bill of "a recently extinct blended Scotch with a long history and a strong link to a Sir Walter Scott novel in which a number of urban centres are references" would point at the novel of Rob Roy, after whom a famous brand of whisky in Scotland is named after, Bailie Nicol Jarvie (or BNJ), which was produced by The Glenmorangie Company.

The blend boasted the highest malt content of any other Scotch blend, but as a result was discontinued in 2014 given the popularity of Glenmorangie single malt, which required most of the distillery's malt whisky capacity.

Rob Roy tells the story of Frank Osbaldistone, the son of an English merchant who left home as a result of his differing religion and temperament to his father and brother. He is cast away by his father when he refuses to join the family's successful business, and traded for his cousin. His intelligent but unscrupulous cousin in turn causes problems for the family business, which Frank is then sent to solve by traveling to Scotland in search of a larger-than-life character, Rob Roy MacGregor.

Bailie Nicol Jarvie, which seems to be the blend Metropolis is inspired by, is a character in the novel Rob Roy, who was a Glasgow merchant who served as a key aid in Frank's hopes to enlist Rob Roy's help and greatly guided Frank along his journey.

There is even a famous cocktail named Rob Roy of the same novel.

The whisky has no color added but is filtered through a gentle 10 micron filter and is only due to be bottled in May 2023! It appears that a total of 5,430 bottles are due to be released and bottled at 49% ABV. 

Images courtesy of Compass Box. 

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team