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The always excellent Paul Adams on some new scotch technology, from Wired: >Halfway through our interview, John Glaser walks away from the table, leaving me alone with the tools of his trade: graduated cylinders, conical measures, tasting glasses, water and several flasks of Scotch whisky. At his urging, I’m going to create my own personal Scotch. I measure out 10-milliliter working tastes of each whisky, dilute them precisely from cask proof to 40 percent strength, and take a stab. Glaser makes it sound easy, but I’m not so sure. Maybe a few exploratory tastes will loosen me up. >It’s a beautiful, sunny afternoon in Chiswick, London. The energetic Glaser, a forty-something Minnesotan whose ready grin mitigates his piercing gaze, is the sole whiskymaker of Compass Box, the boutique company he founded in 2000 after quitting his job as a marketing director for Johnnie Walker. At Compass Box, he’s introduced some of the first innovations in decades to the craft of making and blending Scotch — and in so doing, has won both accolades and brickbats from the conservative guardians of the whisky industry. >Although the brand sells only some 6,000 cases yearly, Compass Box’s independent ways have made an impression on the whisky world. The blends have won a disproportionate number of awards, but also raised the hackles of the Scotch establishment.

Visit Site: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2007/10/compassbox?currentPage=a...