It’s mostly sold out by now, but you might be able to find a few bottles left on store shelves. Which shelf ? Funny you should ask...
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One of the earliest movers in the comingled spirits category was Alabama-based Red Eye Louie’s. The brand traces its roots back to 2010, when father-daughter team Chander and Nina Arora hit on the idea of a product that mixed vodka and tequila. A former textile chemist, Chander used a “thermal blending technique” to unite the two spirits, creating their first product: Vodquila. Rumquila and Whisquila soon followed. A zaftig bottle emblazoned with a sombrero-wearing skull gives the Red Eye Louie’s lineup a light-hearted, party vibe — the kind of thing you’d reach for if the occasion called for a tray full of shots, or something to take along to the beach with your friends. But not all spirit combinations scream “spring break.” Compass Box, the Londonbased whisky maker specializing in Scotch whisky blends, took a super-premium approach to comingled spirits with the launch of Affinity, a blend of Scotch whisky and Calvados. The combination was inspired by the home blending experiments of Compass Box founder John Glaser, who made it a habit to reach for one of two spirits every time his wife made tarte tatin: Calvados, a French apple brandy made in Normandy, one of the regions of France closest to England, or Compass Box’ Spice Tree, a spicy, warming blend of Scotch whiskies finished in French oak casks. One day, he decided to try mixing the two together and we can assume that dessert at the Glaser household was never quite the same. “Calvados, a bit like Scotch whisky twelve years ago, has this fuddy duddy old person’s drink reputation among the French populace at large,” said James Saxon, assistant whisky maker at Compass Box. As a result, when Glaser approached Thierry Bénitah, the head of Maison du Whisky in Paris, about creating a commercial product that blended of Scotch and Calvados, Bénitah was skeptical. “Thierry was saying, ‘Do not do this; it is not a good idea’,” said Saxon. Still, Glaser was undeterred. He partnered with Calvados producer Christian Drouin to sourcesome eight-year-old Calvados from the Pays d’Auge, one of the most prestigious AOCs (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) in the region. Then,
he began a series of blending experiments to hone in on the right ratio of whisky to brandy. After several dozen iterations, the Compass Box blending team arrived at a ratio of about one-third Calvados and twothirds Scotch whisky, a proportion that lets Calvados’ distinctive fruity character shine through. “We could have buried the Calvados in there as a subtle note, but the concept, for us, really demanded that both of these spirits played equal roles,” said Saxon. “Calvados is an even more boisterous, intensely flavorsome spirit than malt whisky, so even though it’s just under forty percent of the recipe, it feels like it’s a double act in every possible respect.” The whisky used in the blend includes a number of components, including Highland malts aged in French oak casks at a range of toast levels, blended Scotch aged in refill sherry casks, and an undisclosed Speyside single malt aged in first-fill sherry casks. Saxon said that last ingredient was key to creating a harmonious marriage between the two spirits. “We realized that what was required here was two contrasting powerhouses, rather than using slightly subtler components,” said Saxon. Saxon said Compass Box has explored other hybrid spirits in the past, but Affinity is the first one they’ve released. It’s mostly sold out by now, but you might be able to find a few bottles left on store shelves. Which shelf? Funny you should ask. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s been tricky for retailers to figure out where to shelve it — with the whisky or with the Calvados? “We don’t have a shelf halfway between Calvados and Scotch whisky,” said Saxon. “It does … capture the imagination in that regard.” With its rich tradition of blending (in the traditional sense), Scotch whisky has provided fertile ground for other experimental cominglings. Another soon-to-be-released hybrid spirit is Baiskey, a blend of Scotch whisky and baijiu from Scottish-based company Kylin Spirits Group. Marissa Jiang, the UK director of Kylin Spirits Group, says the concept grew from a desire to create a product that would appeal to both Chinese and Western drinkers. “Just like how Western drinkers find it hard W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M
