The copper color is beautiful — I could look at it for an hour; the first thing that comes immediately to mind is smoked venison summer sausage, and soon after I smell seaweed, charcoal, peat smoke, and orange (when it's grilled with chicken breast) — the nose, even more than the color, has me paralyzed; the palate boasts sweet smoke from a blazing bonfire, the northern woods, more smoked game, maple bacon, and burnt cereal (think oven-baked barley with molasses); the eternally smoky finish leaves me wondering what lodge I've just been to, having eaten my fill of hunted game and roasted vegetables; the aftertaste is more of the seaside, with mineral salt and peat coming to the fore in a brilliant way; an experience I won't forget — earthy, peaty, smoky, hunted fare. I was always skeptical, but now I understand the hype. Now to try the presumably highly underrated Lagavulin 12. Definitely a 4.5.