To celebrate the holiday season, I’ve been holding onto this sample from @PBMichiganWolverine for a while and am excited to finally crack it open with the winter weather and finally try out Paul John distillery. The nose starts with an effervescent sherry note with dark chocolate and figs followed by Fuji apples and orange peel before a light smoke and minerality that fades to spices of anise, pine needles, and light oak with medium ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with light sherry sulfur then dark chocolate, roasted nuts and figs followed by sour apples and grapefruit pith before a moderate tannic spice with light smoke that slowly fades to spices of anise, pine needles, and ashy oak with medium ethanol burn. The finish is medium length with orange peel, green apple, moderate sulfur, anise, pine and ashy oak. The nose starts off with a nice mix of those sherry dark chocolate and figs along with citrus fruits, light smoke and spices that make me feel in the winter mood and that Santa has come with some treats. Sadly, Santa was only pretending to visit and it was a ruse as Krampus was behind him with his birch rod waiting to pounce on the taste and assault my taste buds with sulfur, sour citrus, tannic spice and ashy oak that thankfully the devious duo left with this finishing with pithy sour fruit, sulfur, light spice and ashy oak. Looking at other reviews, this might be one of those polarizing drams that you either love or hate. The only other option is that this is perhaps a well-engineered product to reward the nice and punish the naughty. Alas, I guess I fall into the hate it and naughty crowd on this one.