I feel i had high hopes for this one, but it was kind of disappointing, since it is a normal dram, not too many things happening here, and you cant say it is bad, but it is not great, it is fair.
Bottled at 40%Abv, it has a beautiful burnished color. On the nose it is very very very difficult to percieve since its aroma is "deaf", meaning you have to put your whole nose to a test here. I followed another reviewer's advice (Paul Macieri) to let it sit, and it grew a little bit, helping me to get all the notes that i will proceed to describe:
after Hiding its notes under the glass, i got ashes (like a extinguished bonfire peatyness), berries, prunes peel, dry apricot peel, caramel (toffee) and a little bit of a malty oakyness. This is the most fruity whisky i have ever nosed, almost chewable, maybe because i had to stick my nose into the glencairn glass for a couple of minutes.
On the Palate it is hot, but manageable, oaky, earthy, grassy, a little peated, very little. finish is short-medium, and it is medium bodied.
after adding just one little drop of water the whole aroma faded, to never return again, but in the palate changed everything. As soon as you taste it spices which werent there at all without water, start to rise to give you a full spicy mouth, similar to black pepper or ginger.
it is a fair whisky, maybe it is not for me, but i have had better. As a fact, yesterday i had macallan 10yo fine oak and that one is far superior. cheers!