NOTE: This is my first post-COVID rating, so if it sounds like I have no taste, you might be right. (You might have been right pre-COVID too.) The nose is prickly star anise, fennel and carraway seeds. Wood lacquer. Pumpernickel bread. Black peppercorns, with a curious hit of vegetal green pepper / red capsaicin spice. The longer it lingers, I'm getting notes of candied prunes, if such a thing exists. I'm really enjoying the nose on this. The flavor is a surprising amount of prunes & figs; candied orange. Dry cinnamon spice. Almonds and pecans. There is a curious baby oil and candle wax taste, which matches the oily viscosity of the texture. The cinnamon/rye spice burns on the way down, which belies it's meager 80-proof. The finish is charred wood right off the bat. Brown sugar and mocha coffee grounds. Tobacco leaf and cowhide. Spruce/evergreen leaves. Camphor oil. Spent matches. Black pepper spices and sawdust, despite a rather short finish. I am still feeling my way through rye, but the more than I sample, the more I'm beginning to like them. Templeton cuts through my current taste bud deficiencies and offers a really complex -- but pleasant -- rye that works both neat and in a cocktail.