OK... up front, I am a fan of Buffalo Trace products (as well as Four Roses). This has more oak than Buffalo Trace and the much younger Ancient Age and Benchmark, but brings spice (despite being from the lower rye mash bill?) and fullness instead of tannic bitterness. Where I live, this is only a couple bucks more than BT, so well worth the price for the added oak, complexity, and smoothness that comes with additional age (at < $30, this is well worth the price for a well aged bourbon). I find it warming and spicy neat (although not as warming as 94 proof Elijah Craig 12) and sweeter and fruitier with water. I just wish the bottle was shorter to fit in my liquor cabinet. EDIT: while hard to prove, I agree with those saying that the most-recent Eagle Rare doesn't seem to be as good as the former "single barrel" bottlings... now worth $30 rather than being a value at that price.