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!