Oily and leggy; honey-gold color. I've heard positive things about this one, for price at least, so I felt I had to pull the trigger on it. The nose is kind of harsh: the first wave is strong, smoke aromas like diesel fumes, pen ink and iodine. It's not a campfire smoke like one may assume, but rather car exhaust and burnt plastic. If you can stick with it through another wave, a softer underbelly of aromas come through: buttercream, vanilla, barley malts and a hint or brown sugar. It's a little aggressive for my olfactory preference. The first sip is straight up sulfur: gassy, inky, and with a little bit of rotten egg, although not as unpleasant as that smell is. There are some more pleasant flavors of tobacco, cigars, and potting soil. Some of the barley pokes through too, but for me, the more pleasant flavors are overshadowed by the industrial detritus. The finish is long and lasting, but whether or not you want that is something you and your spiritual advisor will have to work out. To me it's charcoal ash, potting soil, bitter dark chocolate and metallic tannins. There is a lot of burnt chocolate chip cookie-bottom that I don't often get out of Scotch. (I used to get it a lot in oily imperial stouts, and I find it works better in that context.) There is some butterscotch and some toffee, but overall it's a harsh, ashy, almost punishing finish. I can't say that Black Bottle lived up to even my modest expectations. It's not a bad or unpleasant whisky, but it's also not pleasant either. It's got a lot of metallic, ashy, inky and industrial smoke stuff going on that sticks to the palate. It might work better as a mixer in a cocktail that requires a smoky Scotch.