I've had my eye on this one since it was announced, as I have really enjoyed all of the Laphroaig cask finishes I've tried, including Brodir, PX and Port & Wine Cairdeas. This is also bottled at 48% which is helpful, and has a 10 year age statement unlike Brodir, PX and most Cairdeas finishes which usually run about $85. This is a hair more expensive than Cairdeas which is okay when you take the age statement into account - and not so okay when you consider that the standard 10 is nearly half the price and this is basically the 10 with a year of finishing. So I was really hoping I didn't get ripped off here. I was relieved when I tried it. The color on this is amazing and I sure hope it's real. A deep, beautiful rusty color. Nose is simple and very nice, with campfire smoke, not so much medicinal, prunes, figs and some restrained maritime notes. Palate is terrific - just the right amount of sweet notes for me with the smoke and some pepper. Finish is tingly pepper and more sweet and smoke. A couple drops of water improve this dram quite a bit, smoothing out any tannin from the wine and amplifying the smoke and sherry notes to my taste. I'm no expert, but I think the sherry cask must be of high quality here as the sherry notes integrate very well with the smoke unlike a recent Caol Ila IB I had recently. Very happy with this purchase and for me it is better than the other cask finish special releases I've tried (not that many that I didn't list) and just below Lore. Phew - very thankful I didn't incinerate $90 on barely-touched Lap 10. This one is really enjoyable. This is supposedly going in the core range, which would be great - but please get that price down to a range similar to the Lag or Talisker Distiller Editions. I think a 30% premium is fine, but 100%? I'd have been livid if this wasn't good at that kind of a markup.