Rating: 6/23 I'm skeptical about Metaxa. It seems like their premise is taking NAS brandy and mixing some flavorings in. I've seen this before with Drambuie and flavored vodkas. That said, I read a while back a posting by someone who took a tour of the Metaxa facility. He got to sample some of the really old stuff there and thought it was really good. So I finally sprung for this. It should be representative of moderately high end Metaxa and it comes in a ceramic bottle. N: Oh, no. This already smells really bad. It's very young, with alcohol, artificial citrus flavor, and sugar added. It reminds me of one of those Veil flavored vodkas. There's a bit more going on, with some floral, caramel, and fruity notes, but it's watery with a sickly sweetness and prominent artificial note. Faint herbs and vegetation, I suppose. Ick. This is very actively unpleasant. P: Ugh, this is painful! It really does remind me of those Veil flavored vodkas I tried a couple years ago. It's young with artificial sweet flavors. Floral and a bit herbal, Not harsh, but sugary. This is richer than those with less industrial flavors. There are hints of caramel and wood richness in here, but they're terribly faint. I wouldn't guess that this is even 6 months old. There is a prominent apple brandy note the reminds me of Mischief, but it doesn't escape the prison of those awful artificial and youthful flavors. There's some very light spiciness with a touch of harshness to it, but not a lot. Definite vegetal flavors, which meld right into the slightly rubbery artificial flavors. Gross. F: Vegetal, sweet, artificial, some fruit with citrus and light caramel. A bit of rainbow peppercorn. Look, I just can't get past that artificial flavor and vegetal youthful weirdness. - Conclusion - Based on my recollection of Veil's flavored vodkas, I think this cannot be lower than a 6. Probably not lower than a 7. Side by side, Wheatley (14/23) tastes a bit better than this. I'm right now thinking that this is going to struggle to get a 9. Ry3 (8/23) is sort of the antithesis of this, with its fiery burn and more traditional flavors (though with rye mixed with rum, obviously). Ugh, I'm inclined to think that the Ry3 is better. The palate here is just kind of gag-inducing. I think this is more like a 7. I didn't have high expectations for this, but what a disappointment still. I won't be buying any more Metaxa unless I see a bunch of extremely high reviews of some premium release. I mean actually premium: not whatever this garbage is. At least the bottle looks nice. Oh, wow, Dudognon Reserve (10/23) is so much better than this, side by side. Yeah, this is really not good. This is really bad. Thinking back to Grant's (7/23), I'm thinking that there is more to dislike here and less to like. Not a huge gap, but I'm thinking now of a 6 for this. I'm not sure that this is painful enough to go down to a 5, but I can give it a rating as low as a 6 fairly confidently now. Blech.