John Glaser was on hand in NYC to reintroduce Compass Box Spice Tree and Orangerie

Once upon a time, a Scotch lover named John Glaser worked for a company you may have heard of, Johnnie Walker. After years at the house that Walker built, Glaser decided to marry his love and knowledge of Scotch with his college dream of being a wine maker. So came experiments in blending and aging, and many respected whiskys under the Compass Box name.
Glaser and the Compass Box crew were on hand on Monday evening at Beekman Bar and Books for the reintroduction of two special products, Compass Box Spice Tree and Orangerie.
While Glaser got in trouble a couple of years back for the way he made the barrels on Spice Tree, he found a new way to incorporate French Oak into the barrels (in the heads). Spice Tree lives up to its name with a nose of nutmeg and clove. The spice continues on the palate, which is deep and full of dark fruit notes. Orangerie is a different beast, so different that John said he is toying with the idea of taking Compass Box off the label and letting its just be “Orangerie”. The whisky infusion comes from a small run he used to make as Christmas gifts. Now that they’ve figured it out for a large scale, Orangerie is coming back to the shelves. Smooth and sweet, Orangerie is Scotch infused with hand-zested orange peel, Sri Lankan cloves and Indonesian cassia bark. Orangerie struck me a very versatile, as it was lovely neat, in a classic Sour but also would be great to cook with.
We were also treated to an opening cocktail by fellow cocktail blogger Hal Wolin
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Oak Tree
2 oz Compass Box Oak Cross
1/2 oz Calvados
1/2 ox Yellow Chartreuse
2 dash Peychaud bitters
1 oz Apple Cinnamon Syrup
Shake and serve up

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