So vat’s vat

Boutique whisky maker John Glaser, the man behind the acclaimed Compass Box range of whiskies, will mark the outlawing of the term ‘vatted whisky’ by bottling the final ever vatted whisky at one minute to Midnight.

Glaser, his team and a small number of invited guests will meet during the evening to mark the end of an era which has lasted hundreds of years before proceeding to a secret location for the final bottling.

We’ll be there to witness the moment because our editor was at the forefront of the proposed changes and continues to believe that the Scotch Whisky Association has made a massive mistake by driving the new terms through.

Vatted whiskies are whiskies made with a mix of malts from different distilleries. They contain no grain whisky so are not blended whiskies but because they contain malts from more than one distillery they are not single malts either.

In recent years Compass Box has excelled at making stunning boutique whiskies using a vatting of various malts. For this reason John Glaser is particularly incensed by the change of terminology.

From midnight tonight vatted malts must be described on all labelling as ‘blended malts.’ This is not the same as ‘blends’ or ‘blended whiskies’.

The new vatting will be released as a limited bottling and it is already heavily over-subscribed.

For more on the bottling read our earlier article http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2011/11/compass-box-launches-last-ever-vatted-malt/