As a lover of rye whiskey, this is exciting. I've been so focused on the botanicals in gins that I've completely disregarded the base spirit, and what it had to be or could be. I expect this is to be a potent, spicy gin, so I'm hoping the simple botanical use is enough to come through a powerful body. The scent on this is easily black pepper, so much of it, like the legal amount needed to put in a proper sausage gravy to get it to turn gray. It's not just black pepper, though, but like the pepper was freshly ground on citrus peels, flower petals, and some tea leaves; very simple botanical choices, but that's good considering these are not the star here. This is room temperature at the moment, so to say the initial taste is hot would be unfair... For now. Tea and juniper are the first notes I get, followed by a floral body, with citrus coming much later, like half a minute past the finish. I couldn't help but compare this with a rye whiskey profile since I don't have any other gin to go off of, so I was expecting fresh cut grass, mint, and just a bit of wine-y malt. However, the botanicals actually keep the base spirit from getting too spicy, and allow only a fraction of the grass and rye spice through that's enough to taste, but not to experience or feel. That last paragraph took long enough to type that I was able to breathe some air in past a recent sip, and after a few breaths, a fresh rye bread taste manifested almost immediately. The botanicals had faded since then, so this was just that bread-y, minty taste, which I didn't think I would get. This leads me to believe that this gin could be really unlocked and discovered with very minimal or simple changes, like on ice, or with a lemon peel, but the uniqueness wouldn't hold up in a cocktail, unless it was seriously showcasing the gin itself. I take it the barrel aged version of this that Distiller mentioned is not ready yet, since I didn't see it in stores, but that would definitely be something I would snag to see how these flavors transform, despite absolutely loathing barrel aged gins in general. That, or a navy strength version would certainly kick ass, in more ways than one.