The nose is quite pleasant. It's got some heat, but not as much as you'd expect for the proof. Caramel, apricot, berry. The palate is brown sugar, pineapple custard, coconut, strawberry jam, with some cinnamon and tobacco leaf going into the finish. I had a small sip of this blinded sample a couple months ago and wasn't prepared for the heat. It had me coughing and burning, and hesitant to come back to this for a while. But after preparing my palate with a small dram before this, I'm rather pleased and really glad now that it came in a larger-than-normal medicine bottle-looking sample from @PBMichiganWolverine - thank you for sharing so generously! Really fun whiskey once you're prepared for the heat, or even better, add a little water. I finished the sample with some water, and it really opened up quite nicely - seemed to bring out more of the red wine notes for me.