Compass Box is an independent whisky blending and bottling company established in London in 2000 by John Glaser, a former marketing exec for Johnnie Walker. The company quickly made a name for itself with their groundbreaking whiskies - including Hedonism, Asyla, Peat Monster and Flaming Heart - which challenged and reinvigorated several unfashionable or moribund whisky categories, particularly grain whisky and vatted malts. 

John Glaser stepped down from Compass Box in 2024 but his legacy in the whisky industry is far-reaching. Glaser's skill as a blender for Compass Box demonstrated his love of flavour, while his whiskies' distinctive modern aesthetic confirmed his flair for marketing. But it was his commitment to transparency and his embrace of innovative new techniques that marked out Compass Box and had the widest influence on the modern whisky market.

Inevitably, some of his creations fell flat or drew the ire of the hidebound busybodies at the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA). The delicious whisky liqueur Orangerie was withdrawn as its minimal filtration led to bits of orange peel floating in the liquid; the first version of vatted malt The Spice Tree was banned by the SWA, who deemed Glaser's use of extra new oak staves suspended inside the casks beyond the pale. Undeterred, Glaser recreated The Spice Tree without the extra staves, instead putting new oak heads on the casks to create the same effect - a classic example of his insouciant genius.