After falling head over heels for Week of Peat 14 year, I've become enamored by this line from Balvenie. When I saw that there was a 17 year bottling available at my favorite local spot, I shelled out the money for it, no questions asked. The nose is decidedly less smoky than 14 year. In fact, the nose on this whisky is decided less smoky than most peated whiskies I have tried, blended or single malt. It is still there, hanging like a low fog around sweet honey and a little kiss of briny ocean water. The tail end of the nose sweetens up with those Danish butter cookies but just for a fleeting moment. The front of the taste starts with vanilla and a little bit of baking spices. As the taste moves along, that baking spice tingle softens up but does linger in the background. Yes, the peat smoke is there but it is so faint that one could almost mistake this for a non peated whisky. A buttery sweetness returns from the nose but this time, in the form of butterscotch and cream then departs quickly as the baking spice boomerangs back into full force, ushering in the finish. The finish on this whiskey is big on tannic oak and sweet. With the peat smoke almost undetectable at this point, the finish gets a flash of tart and sweet raspberries before being carried off by a rolling wave of tannins, bringing with it a slightly powdery mouth feel. Think: dark cocoa powder. That harmonic dance of sweet and bitter fades off into the sunset along with that familiar baking spice from earlier. Wow. What a stunning whisky this is. But be forewarned - if you are looking for gobs of peat smoke... the kind that makes your eyes sting and your nose burn... this is not the whiskey for you. In fact, I would venture to say that this could be the peated whisky of choice for those who aren't quite on board with peated whisky. It is so gentle that it eases you into the category and at the same time offers up beautiful complexity with palate pleasing sweetness. Its too bad the cost of admission is rather high.