N: Glencairn first: Peach and pear. Fruity and floral. Bit of soft wood - can't place the type. Some orange citrus. There's ethanol you can feel, but not quite smell. Noticeably, I don't get much (or any) of the JW hallmark smoke on the nose (oddly though, I do smell it in the empty glass at the end of the pour). Switching to a NEAT glass: Peach and now fresh cut pear (much stronger, fresher feeling scent). Wood drops out, but is replaced by a nice salty, briny maritime scent. Sour fruit at the edges of the glass. Red fruit develops in the middle. There's a chalky, earthy, mineral quality to it too. (Still no smoke.) P: Orchard fruit early. That lovely, fragrant JW smoke does hit the palate pretty quick, but seems to do its own thing rather than color the other flavors. Then the dram finds its center with a very fine vanilla cream serving as a bed for some thin wafer cookies that've been dipped in chocolate to get a very thin coating. The chocolate itself lands somewhere between dark and milk, like a lightly sweetened dark chocolate. Then that earthy mineral note from the nose breaks it up and starts the transition to the finish. Finish is quite long with cinnamon spice early, then mint later. Little bit of bitterness. Tobacco smoke and leather drop in late. Mouthfeel is very thick, chewy, coating - feels like it's dripping off your tongue. On the whole, I think this, like many other whiskies, is a fine whisky that is quite overpriced. More than possibly any other blended whisky on the market, JW Blue has managed to convince people to fork over cash for a label. Look, it's good. I love the idea of the history behind it, the 1 in 10,000 barrels, the ghost whiskies it may contain, etc. But it's not at all rare, so some of that ends up sounding like BS. And, in the end, it's not overwhelmingly amazing. It's definitely not worth $160 to $240 (generally the range locally). That's three to (almost) five bottles of the Green Label, which I find much more interesting (and much harder to find). There's no day of the week I wouldn't trade one bottle of Blue for three bottles of Green (or even two Green, for that matter). What's more, I think the Blue doesn't even really compete at the $100 range - there are many bottles - blended, single malts, and others - that are more interesting than this at that price. Anyway, VFM is always inherently subjective. Although a fine dram, this is one of the worst VFM buys I can personally think of. But, would I buy it again? Yeah, probably. It looks nice on the shelf and someone will always want it. It's just not likely it'll be me.