Head to head · unusually close flavour match
Compass Box Artist Blend vs Johnnie Walker Blue Label
These two are not in the same bracket: £532 a litre of pure alcohol for Johnnie Walker Blue Label against £123 for Compass Box Artist Blend.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Compass Box Artist Blend | Johnnie Walker Blue Label | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Blended scotch | Blended scotch |
| Origin | Scotland | Scotland |
| Age | No age statement | No age statement |
| Strength | 43% ABV | 40% ABV |
| Cask | First-fill ex-bourbon barrel, custom medium-toast French oak, re-vatted Palo Cortado sherry-seasoned butt | Not disclosed |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £37 | £149 |
| Per 10cl | £5.29 | £21 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £123 | £532 |
| Chill-filtered | No | Not stated |
What separates them
Both from Scotland.
Neither carries an age statement, so neither discloses its youngest spirit.
Compass Box Artist Blend lists first-fill ex-bourbon barrel, custom medium-toast french oak and re-vatted palo cortado sherry-seasoned butt. Johnnie Walker Blue Label publishes no cask detail at all.
Chill filtration: Compass Box Artist Blend is not, Johnnie Walker Blue Label does not say.
Colour: Compass Box Artist Blend natural colour, Johnnie Walker Blue Label silent.
What the price buys
Johnnie Walker Blue Label is £112 dearer a bottle than Compass Box Artist Blend.
Strength keeps that ordering: £123 a litre of pure alcohol for Compass Box Artist Blend against £532.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Compass Box Artist Blend is 10th cheapest and Johnnie Walker Blue Label 31st cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Compass Box Artist Blend | Johnnie Walker Blue Label |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 2 | 3 |
| Sweet | 6 | 7 |
| Fruity | 7 | 6 |
| Spicy | 5 | 5 |
| Woody | 5 | 5 |
| Sherried | 4 | 5 |
| Cereal | 6 | 5 |
| Oily | 6 | 7 |
No axis reaches the 3-point gap we call meaningful. Widest is peaty, 2 against 3.
Identical on spicy and woody.
Each bottle in its own right
Compass Box Artist Blend
Bright orchard fruit and cream with a dry, spiced finish. Proof that a blend can be interesting.
Compass Box publishes the complete recipe by percentage, which no large blender does: 45% Cameronbridge grain, 22% Linkwood, 10% Clynelish, 10% Balmenach, 8% a Highland malt blend in custom French oak, 5% Linkwood in a Palo Cortado butt. Component ages are the one thing conspicuously absent. Formerly sold as Great King Street Artist's Blend.
Full record →Johnnie Walker Blue Label
Silky, honeyed and faintly smoky. Immaculately made, and priced for the box as much as the liquid.
Diageo's own page states no age at all, framing selection by rejection rate instead — only one cask in 10,000 qualifies — with some components from closed 'ghost' distilleries.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Compass Box Artist Blend for value at 43%, transparency and first blended scotch, Johnnie Walker Blue Label for gift and occasion bottle.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Compass Box Artist Blend and Johnnie Walker Blue Label: compassboxwhisky.com, cdn.shopify.com, thebar.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.