This is… an experience. When I drink this and I’m in the mood for it… there’s just nothing else. For reference, the only other Islay single malt in my repertoire is Laphroaig 10. Other than that, only peated scotch has been blended. I get so much complexity out of this. Smokey, tamari seaweed snack being eaten on the beach as the sea spray hits me and the person next to me is eating a bowl of figs while smoking a cigar. It’s … camphor and eucalyptis and other hard to place but adjacent flavors. Herbs and earth. It’s like asking me to try and pick apart what’s in Ricola. I tried this tonight 3 ways: neat, on the rocks, and then in an old fashioned. The old fashioned was great, but you could skip the bitters and a bit of saline helps bring out the brine even more. The rocks mellowed things out, but this actually just made it less sweet, somehow MORE smoky (to me), and less savory, all while making the ethanol paradoxically MORE noticable. A few drops of water in the neat pour opened things up a bit and there’s almost like a baked vegetable… roasted broccoli? … deeply complex element coming through. It’s that core peat-induced flavor that I can’t seem to find the right analogue for. Also tried this just now in a rusty nail. Now this is an interesting twist on a classic. Almost unrecognizable. Maybe could benefit from something else to balance things out. Oddly, though, the spirit itself is quite balanced. Sublime.