Aroma - Neat: At 58.9% ABV, it is quite nippy on the nose, but the PX Sherry still jumps out. Sweet brown sugar, dark dried fruits such as prune, currant, date and raisin and a gentle touch of hardwood smoke (Think the gentleness of smoked salmon, for instance.) Water Added : This scotch stood up to nearly 3 teaspoons of water before the nip of the ethanol was tamed. After this and a good 10 minutes left to breath and open up, I am picking up a wide array of smells, here. My first and perhaps most interesting impression is that the sweetness and smokiness is coming together in this sort of sweet and savory way that is akin to something like, BBQ dry rub, sweet pulled pork or perhaps bacon jam. To break this down further, I can smell green apple, marmalade, black tea, gentle hardwood smoke, subtle wine tannins and syrupy Demerara, Brown and dark candi sugars, I dare say in a rum-cakey sort of way. Taste - Neat: Again, very hot at cask strength, undiluted. Only the most basic and prominent points are able to be tasted through the heat; smoke and a Demerara sugar type sweetness. Water Added: First and foremost, this is damned nice. Probably one of the most interesting and just straight up tasty scotches I’ve ever had. I’ve always been a big fan of sweet and savory and so I always searched around trying to find this bottle. It delivers exactly what I hoped it would; bittersweet dark chocolate, Black tea, brown sugar, dates, raisin and a prominent but not stark, smoke. (Some Islays can get to that medicinal degree of smoke, but this is sophisticated and gentle, like a smoked meat). Final Thoughts - Probably has made its way into my top 5 scotches of all time. The sweetness of the PX Sherry mixed with the Islay smokiness comes together in this delicious way that I can only describe as Barbecue. Take a super smokey, rendered, fatty slice of brisket and top it with some sort of dark, dried fruit chutney / sauce and you’ve got an idea of this scotch. Absolutely stellar. Going to be hard to resist drinking this all right away!