The bottle for the review is the mini bottle that is bottled up at 40%, but the full bottle is bottled up at 43%. As I’m not about to spend $550 to $800 on a bottle without trying it first, I went for the sample that has been watered down 3%. I’m not sure who had the rationale to send out slightly watered down mini bottles to consumers considering a purchase of a full bottle, but I’m sure there was a business savvy person that came up with a shrinkflation model highlighting the ability to bottle more stock at 40% than 43%. Anyways, let’s crack this shrinkflation version of a full bottle open and find out how it tastes. The nose starts light and mellow with a bowl of frosted wheat breakfast cereal followed by fruits of golden raisins, persimmons and light grapefruit that transitions to light floral notes then to spices of black pepper, cloves and light oak with light ethanol burn. The taste is a thin mouthfeel starting with a light floral caramel followed by candied pecans then fruits of golden raisins, honeydew and apricot that transition to a medium bitter spice mid-palate that slowly fades away to black pepper, ginger, cloves and ashy oak with light ethanol burn. The finish is medium length and slightly drying with golden raisins, apple, plums, whole peppercorns, ginger and ashy oak. Ugh, this is a disappointment that starts with a light nose of citrus, whole wheat cereal and light spices that carries over to the palate with the addition of light toasted nut before gravitating toward a bitter and spicy flavor that fades but re-emerges on the finish. There is no way this is worthy of that $550+ cost and much better whisky can be had for under $100. Perhaps these are their bad barrels and they put the better 25 year old stock in the higher proof version full bottle, but I certainly am not going to spend the money to find out.