Compass Box Orchard House

Nose is green apple skin, sweet apple flesh, creamy caramel, buttery shortbread, orange flower, and mineraly spray. When you sip it, a lemony tang hits you first, followed by lush apple before a surprisingly robust astringency rises up. The tang never quite disappears but instead morphs to a Szechuan peppercorn tingle. Long finish is that of cider. Interesting blend.

I could hardly wait to try this when Compass Box announced it's release. A heavy dose of Linkwood blended with other fruit forward malts sounded perfect to me (NOTE: the review by fomo is excellent.) The nose of this is a delight of subtle fruit, a lightly scented flower, and vanilla. I let the first neck pour rest in the nosing glass for 15 minutes. Entry is silken, so typical of Linkwood. The tongue catches a multi-faceted punch of gentle fruit notes. This is followed by a bitterness and strong astringency. I found this off-putting and a contradiction of the initial fruit notes. Both a longer breathing time or a few drops of water lessened this effect. Now my bottle is on it's last third; and, that bitterness and astringency are nearly gone. What is left is a bit of spice---perhaps ginger and clove. This part of the bottle I would rate as a 4.25!

I'm in the minority in that I've generally been underwhelmed by Compass Box. Although I agree with the company's principles, I've generally found their whiskies to be less interesting and more expensive than traditional single malts. However, the name "Orchard House" brought back memories of some wonderful fruit-forward Balblairs, so I was compelled to try this one. Impressions @ new bottle: The nose seems a bit tight, offering more grass, lavender, and acetone than fruit. This will likely open up with time and/or water, but it's a touch astringent, as is. The palate is surprisingly dry, and offers a lot of wood and spice up front. The palate begins to really shine at mid-palate, as some really lovely Balblair-esque fruit notes arrive and stay through the finish. Dried apricot, canned peaches, brandied cherries, and pear cider mix with notes of black tea and cloves. The finish is pleasantly warm and reasonably long. I am very pleasantly surprised by this. At first blush, the quality and value are outstanding. This is an approachable but interesting blend that drinks more like a single malt.