For the price this is great whisky - it drinks at least $5 more than I actually paid for it. I've had several tastes recently that greatly underwhelmed me, but this one exceeded my expectations - which were pretty high based on the No. 8. This is a nice, sweet, authoritative whisky that's liable to become one of my favorites. NOSE: Alcohol, corn, vanilla, fried bananas. TASTE: A generic sweetness, brown sugar, cinnamon, pie crust, and honey - it's like apple pie, except I didn't taste any apples. And I didn't detect any oak here, which surprised me; it also surprised me that I didn't mind, because I've come to enjoy some oak flavor. FINISH: Alcohol, spicy honey, and finally an oak that lingers and lingers.