Compass Box Peat Monster Cask Strength: Origin Story, Green Spot Quails' Gate, & More [New Releases]

If you're searching for an extra-special bottle to augment your shelves or gift a loved one, then Sotheby's March whisky sale in New York might have just what you're looking for. Bidding opened yesterday on a slew of exceptional labels, including rare expressions of Pappy van Winkle, Michter's, Buffalo Trace, and more. In this sale, called The Camouflage Collection Part 1, there are 470 lots on offer, and you have until March 17th to check out the online catalog (and make a bid, if you so desire).

Of course, there are more price-friendly new whiskies hitting the shelves this week, among them a heavily peated expression from Compass Box, a new wine cask-finished release from Green Spot, and two ultra-aged single malts from Bushmills. Read on for full details.

Compass Box Peat Monster Cask Strength: Origin Story
Style: Blended malt
Origin: Scotland
Age: Not stated
ABV: 56.7%
Price: $125
Release: March 2023
Availability: Limited; 9,126 bottles globally

Need to know:
As we reported earlier this week, Compass Box is toasting the 20^th anniversary of Peat Monster with this new limited edition. The blended malt consists of 63.9% Caol Ila aged in refill American oak hogsheads, bourbon barrels, and refill sherry puncheons, 35% Williamson Islay malt (this is teaspooned Laphroaig) in refill American oak hogsheads, and 1.1% of its Highland malt blend aged in heavily toasted French oak casks. Once all the blend components were brought together, 64% of the whisky was finished for 3-4 months in 22 American oak casks that were seasoned for a year with grain spirit, while the remaining 36% was filled into standard marrying casks of refill hogsheads and barrels.

Whisky Advocate says:
In 2003, Compass Box founder John Glaser collaborated with Jonathan Goldstein of Park Avenue Liquor of New York for a store-exclusive release that was quickly dubbed a “monster”. Compass Box put Peat Monster on general release the following year. It became one of its best-selling whiskies, spawning further limited edition offshoots over the years, including a Park Avenue Liquors exclusive release of 300 bottles of cask strength Peat Monster 10^th anniversary limited edition in 2013. While the 20^th anniversary release will be more widely available, the label artwork still shows the Monster on the streets of Manhattan.

Green Spot Quails’ Gate
Style: Single pot still
Origin: Ireland
Age: Not stated
ABV: 46%
Price: $70
Release: March 2023
Availability: Limited edition

Need to know:
Irish Distillers Ltd. has added a third offering to the Green Spot Wine Geese series, its range of wine cask-finished single pot still whiskeys developed in partnership with notable winemakers within the Irish diaspora. Green Spot Quails’ Gate is a non-age statement single pot still whiskey finished for 16 months in Canadian pinot noir casks from the Quails’ Gate winery in British Columbia.

Whisky Advocate says:
The Stewart family emigrated from Kildare, Ireland more than a century ago, and their descendants began planting vines in 1961, subsequently founding the Quails’ Gate winery in 1989 in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. The famed Green Spot name has its origins from the Mitchell family, the Dublin wine and spirit merchants who began bonding whiskey in their cellars in 1887 using emptied casks from their wine, port, and sherry imports, and daubing different colored paints on the barrel heads to signify the contents. Today, Irish Distillers produces the Spot Whiskeys at Midleton Distillery, Co. Cork, though still drawing inspiration from the history and practices of Mitchell & Son while rebuilding the range to its former glory.

This new expression joins Green Spot Château Léoville Barton, launched in 2015, and Green Spot Chateau Montelena, which followed in 2017. They've given single pot still lovers the opportunity to compare how the signature Green Spot flavors of green apple, vanilla, and toffee are augmented by finishing in Bordeaux, zinfandel, and pinot noir casks. Released in limited quantities, the Wine Geese expressions have proven to be highly popular and have partnered well with the normal releases in the Spot Range.

Bushmills 25 year old
Style: Single malt
Origin: Ireland
Age: Not stated
ABV: 46%
Price: $900
Release: March 2023
Availability: Limited annual release; 1,125 bottles for 2023

Bushmills 30 year old
Style: Single malt
Origin: Ireland
Age: Not stated
ABV: 46%
Price: $2,200
Release: March 2023
Availability: Limited annual release; 675 bottles for 2023

Need to know:
Bushmills 25 year old was initially matured in bourbon barrels and sherry butts, before a 21 year secondary maturation in first-fill ruby port pipes. The 30 year old, distilled in 1992, is the oldest core whiskey released by Bushmills to date. It too was matured in bourbon barrels and sherry butts, and then finished in first-fill Pedro Ximénez casks for 16 years.

Whisky Advocate says:
Irish whiskeys with great age statements have been a welcome addition to the Ireland's repertoire in recent years, and Bushmills Distillery in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland boasts the largest stocks of aged single malt in Ireland. Irish whiskey lovers will welcome the news that Bushmills’ inventory has sufficient stock to add an annual release of 25 and 30 year old whiskeys to its core range. Bushmills has chosen to fill tried and tested cask types from its playbook for the lengthy secondary maturation of these whiskeys. Port finishing has been favored for several of its single malts, famously giving us Bushmills 16 year old a 1 year port pipe finish, so we would expect the 21 year finish to have a significant flavor impact on the profile of the new Bushmills 25 year old. If you loved Bushmills The Rare Casks 002 29 year old, another 1992 distillate with a long PX cask finish, consider adding the new Bushmills 30 year old to your wish list.

Virginia Distillery Co. Scholar’s Craft Coffee Cask
Style: American single malt
Origin: Virginia
Age: Not stated
ABV: 46%
Price: $60
Release: March 2023
Availability: Limited; 900 bottles

Need to know:
Virginia Distillery Co. (VDC) has announced the formation of the Angela H. Moore Women in Distilling Scholarship and a new whiskey to commemorate it. The scholarship will provide $100,000 in aid to female fermentation science students at Appalachian State University. Half the investment will be used to conduct distillation research projects, and VDC is likewise offering paid-internship opportunities to recipients. The distillery is also recognizing the role coffee plays in collegiate life with a new single malt whiskey aged in bourbon casks and finished for 5 months in barrels that previously held small-batch coffee.

Whisky Advocate says:
March is Women’s History Month, and VDC is investing in the next wave of whiskey makers with this new scholarship. It helps when universities offer relevant areas of study, with Appalachian State being the first on the East Coast to provide a bachelor’s degree in fermentation sciences when it introduced the program in 2012. More recently, brands have created scholarships like these to give aspiring distillers from minority groups a foot in the door. You can read about these programs and more in our round-up of scholarships, internships, and grants designed to bolster diversity within the industry.

Boss Molly Bourbon
Style: Finished bourbon
Origin: North Carolina
Age: 4 year old
ABV: 45%
Price: $70
Release: March 2023
Availability: Limited; NJ, NY, and NC

Need to know:
This is a brand new small batch straight bourbon made with a high-wheat mashbill and finished with toasted grape brandy staves from Copper & Kings Distillery. While the bourbon is distilled and staved at Southern Distilling in North Carolina, it’s bottled in Clarksville, Tennessee. Boss Molly (the ranch term for a stubborn female mule) is owned by three women who are self-professed bourbon lovers: Brandi Bowles, Kate Rosante, and Victoria Horn.

Whisky Advocate says:
For this one, barrel staves from Louisville brandy maker Copper & Kings are cut and toasted, then threaded into the whiskey barrel through its bung hole. The whiskey is tasted weekly to determine how long the staves will stay there, and the length of stave time varies by barrel. Stave finishing isn’t new–Maker's Mark introduced its Maker's Mark 46 expression in 2010 using the process, and its Wood Finishing Series follows that process. Among other examples, Oak & Eden has its own patented “Oak Bill” for each of its stave-finished whiskeys.