A friend of mine bartends private events as a side gig and presented an unopened handle of this swill stating that "she knows I like whiskey". You know those moments when you know better? Like... you know you shouldn't drink this stuff.... but how hell can someone turn down 1.75 L of free booze, even if it is seemingly terrible? Even more so when the friend offering it to you is insanely attractive? ( Hey, what can I say? Sex sells. ) It can't be THAT bad, right? The nose is kind of funky on this. I smell caramel, apples, some peanuts and a little vanilla. The nose is very light, so breathe deep ( if you actually WANT to smell it ). The opening has a weird, powdery mouth feel with vanilla, burnt oak, ethanol and rye. It hits all at once, so don't look too hard for the complexity. The finish carries the rye spice and with it: drier tastes like leather. It's a somewhat long lasting albeit a very simple finish. I don't know...for this price point I thought I'd be spitting this stuff out. But it's not undrinkable. I'd happily accept a pour if I was already pretty drunk and couldn't make out one taste from another anyway. For this price you can do a LOT worse.