Rating: 14/23 N: A little mild and oily. Kind of sweet and herbal. Not a ton happening here. I smell citrus maybe a faint faint peanutty note (weirdly). P: This is mellow and unchallenging. It reminds me of Ford's, but unfortunately with less personality. It's kind of oily, sweet, and mellow. I get some juniper and also a few other flavors, but it's a bit too subtle and muddled for my liking. There's citrus that borders on candied and the alcohol flavor is certainly present (though it's fairly clean). I taste that faint faint peanut too. The smoothness here does sort of have that Aberlour smooth inoffensiveness. I get the feeling that there's solid complexity going on here, but it's all just a bit too subtle for my liking. There's a kind of bitter underlying layer with perhaps a dash of licorice that reminds me a little of Bols Genever (in a good way). Some minerality too. The balance is solid, though I generally prefer my gin to be a touch more dry. F: The alcohol comes out more and the bitter herbal element and minerality kind of linger. - Conclusion - Side-by-side, this is perhaps more mature while Ford's is puchier, livlier, a bit harsher, and more fully realized. This has grown on me though, so I'm placing it closer to Ford's than I'd expected to. I was initially looking at an 11 to 12 for this, but I'm now considering more in the 13 to 15 range. I think that the price and ABV make this a clear loser in comparison with Ford's and other options, but this is solid. I'll enjoy the rest of the bottle. I'm landing on a 14 here. I was in the 14 to 15 range, but since I spent so much time in the sub-14 range, I figured I should go with 14.