I've had my eye on Yellow Spot for a while. I haven't actually had the regular Green Spot. I've had the Chateau Montelena, which is great. I also have an unopened bottle fo the Chateau Leoville Barton waiting for an occasion. My understanding is the Montelena is a bit better than the Leoville Barton, but that doesn't seem like much of a step down given how good the Montelena is. The question in my mind was should I buy the Redbreast Cask Strength 12 or the Yellow Spot, which is a 12 but not Cask Strength. The Redbreast was $95 and the Yellow Spot was $99, so I went with the cask strength Redbreast. Cut to two weeks later. It was bonus time at work. My company has given bonuses every year I've worked there, and usually they were an extra paycheck, which I appreciated. This year, however, they changed their bonus standards, and instead of an extra paycheck it was 10% of my salary, and when I saw it, after doing the double take, I decided a treat was in order. The Yellow Spot was now on sale. $10 off, so it was $89.99. And I walked down the street at lunchtime and picked it up as a gift to myself. It was the dram I planned to open on St. Patrick's Day. My wife and I invited my mom and dad for dinner. My wife made shepherd's pie with greens and an apple cake for desert, and my dad and I and my wife had the Yellow Spot. And I have to say...upon opening? My thoughts were that it was just....okay. The neck pours were decent, but nothing to write home about, nothing to rave about on this site. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, but guests will always praise the free whisky you give them, and maybe I was having an off tasting night. It was oily and vegetal, only a slight bit sweet and honeyed on the palate. And the finish...let's just say, after pouring us each a glass of this, I switched it up, opened the Dark Silkie Peated, the Kilbeggan Small Batch Rye my dad had brought as his offering, gave them a taste of the Clonakilty Port Cask, the Jameson Stout Finished Irish. It doesn't matter that the Yellow Spot didn't live up to expectations, it was still a lovely night. The food was great, the whiskey was enjoyed, my kids were happy to see their grandma and grandpa, and I went to bed happy (side note: my wife is amazing. I said she made a shepherd's pie, but actually she made two; one with shredded beef for my parents and herself and my son, one with lentils for my daughter and myself because we don't eat much meat). Anyway, with a quarter of the Yellow Spot finished off that night, I figured I'd let it sit, check out if the aeration made the flavor profile improve. And if it turns out that my own palate was off that night (and sometimes it is), I wanted to return to it and see if my impression changed. I mentioned in my last few reviews that an old friend came to town over this past weekend, and he LOVES Green Spot, so I figured the best time to taste Yellow Spot again was when he got here, so while I didn't open with it, it was our third glass. And my how the profile had changed with a quarter of the bottle gone and two weeks time. The nose still has the vegetal elements. The distiller describes it as red bell pepper, and I can see that. That and honey and fresh-mown grass. The palate is lovely and tastes of honey and pepper and and nice lingering vanilla. It's rich and oily with a great mouthfeel, and the finish is of a decent length. I wouldn't call it long, but there's a nice slight fruitiness to it, with a trace of that vegetal note returning. It's dry, the finish is, like a good white wine. And I have to say, this is a damn fine whiskey. Then, of course, I opened the Redbreast Cask Strength 12 as a point of comparison, and well, I haven't written my review of that one yet, but I'll close here with saying, yes, I'm a Breast man. The 21 is better but the CS 12 has a half star on this one. It's in my nature I suppose. It goes back a long way, but that doesn't mean I'm overlooking the Spot. The Spot is good, too. If I can have it both ways, I'll take it.