Rating: 17/23 N: A peaty bite with smoke, but it's also light, with floral vanilla apple coming through. And pear. It has a nectar quality to it. A little roast pork with salt and a touch of black pepper. P: Big peat. It gives way to that floral vanilla apple pear flavor, then the peat comes roaring back with smoke and some black pepper. It swirls for a bit, bringing in salted roast pork, then dancing with the floral vanilla fruitiness for a bit. Digging into the peat, it's a dry bitter tartness mainly, but I get a little anise and it feels like some herbs might want to start coming out. It's a bit hot, but never harsh. As I sip this more, the salinity from the pork grows and I start to get some brine as well. F: Peat, slightly floral pear of a juicy nectar quality, and vanilla. Faint pork with salt, black pepper, and mild brine. - Conclusion - This seems like another gimmick whisky. The base distillate is good, but this is young and not all that complex. It has nice core flavors and I do enjoy the big peaty blast, but that's all there is to this. Amrut Peated (17/23) is more mature and balanced than this is, with more nuance to its character as well. That bit of roast pork here really does help, but the youthfulness here with that sweet nectar really does stand out, unfortunately reminding me a lot of Kilchoman. As a double check, I tried Laphroaig 10 (18/23) side by side with this. The Laphroaig was more muddled, but also certainly more mature and complex. Heading back down in the ratings, Nikka From The Barrel (17/23) is richer with some mellower complexity. This is more aggressive with some more campfire character. And obviously more peat. The two are not that far apart in quality though. The Shin 10 (16/23) actually seems pretty close to this. Both have a youthful sweetness to them and then something else behind them. For The Shin, it's the mizunara mostly. For this, it's that campfire and peat. Between the two, I favor this, but they really aren't that far apart. Ugh, I'm still going back and forth on these a bit. Bruichladdich Octomore 10.4 is more punch and aggressive than this is, with a bolder flavor, but also more heat. The question is now whether the comparative mellowness here is a boon or a burden. Ardbeg 10 (16/23) is more complex and mature than this is. I kind of prefer the Ardbeg at first taste. There is a lightness to the Ardbeg though that this doesn't have and the Ardbeg doesn't build in complexity in the same way. It's a tough call. This is a 16 or 17. In the end, I find it to be competitive enough with Nikka From The Barrel and Amrut Peated to earn a 17. But it's also not quite on the level of the Ardbeg 10. Though with water and time some more complexity comes out here, dragging long into the finish. Considering that, I think that this does beat the Ardbeg and this can have its (low) 17. Coming back for my final couple of sips of this, I mostly concur with my prior assessment. I'm more solidly convinced that this is a 17 now, but I'm not really wondering whether it might be an 18. Thank you, @ctbeck11 , for sharing this dram!