Making Time for John

Speaking of making time, I made some time to have lunch with John Glaser on my day off today. Luckily, John was willing to make some time for me as well. John is one of the true nice guys in this business and we usually try to make sure we see each other when I'm there (in London) or he's here. We had lunch at The Cavalier near the mall downtown on Market and talked about our current projects.

While sadly there won't be a Flaming Heart release this year, fans of Compass Box peated whisky are still in for a treat. John will be releasing a tenth anniversary release of the Peat Monster featuring older whiskies in the marriage. I had a chance to taste it today and you can really pick out the Laphroaig. John told me there were various Laphroaig whiskies, ranging from 7 to 11 years old if I remember correctly, as well as some older peated Ardmore malts, about 15 and 16 years of age. These are interwoven with smoky Caol Ila, smoky Ledaig, and a bit of Clynelish. There's also a dash of Spice Tree (Clynelish aged in new French oak) tossed in for good measure.

It also has a bitchingly awesome label.

John is expecting the Peat Monster 10th Anniversary to clock in at around $99.99 retail, so make some room in your budget for the upcoming release. He also expressed interest in our 1979 Faultline Blended whisky because it appears John stumbled upon some similar casks, but even older in age. He took a 33 year old cask of blended whisky and married it with a cask of 40 year old blended whisky to create a new expression he's calling The General. Look for that one early next year.

We're off to Kentucky tomorrow. This time, however, we'll have K&L co-owner Brian Zucker along for the ride. He has no idea what's about to hit him.

-David Driscoll