After buying a little 50ml sample bottle of El Padrino's Anejo ( I didn't want to spring for a full bottle of the stuff without a taste ), I was rather impressed. For Total Wine's Cyber Week deal, they offered up an extra discount on their "Spirits Direct" selections ( usually some pretty tasteless stuff in there, but there's exceptions to the rule ) and I had a coupon that I was able to surprisingly stack. So I went a little El Padrino Crazy, purchasing their Blanco, Anejo and Reposado. Although this intro is getting a bit long winded I wanted to add that - for anyone buying their very own bottle for the first time: that little faux leather corset doesn't need to come off. The plastic wrap ends just at the top of that thing. I didn't know this and was absolutely bewildered trying to untie the string until I finally start taking rage-filled knife slashes at the thing until it tore off in ribbons. Anyway. Buttery, creamy butterscotch comes to mind on first nose. Vanilla, agave with some oak and hay push back on the sweetness. This nose hits square in the middle of tannic and sweet, quite a good compromise of both. A neutral front of that taste peels away to what is a rather vegetal and spicy palate. Significantly less sweet than the Anejo, for sure. The taste is heavy Agave, cut grass, tannic oak and hay. Hidden in all of that vegetation is black peppercorn and just the slightest sweet caramel hit ( It's in the transition between mid and back of taste, hits mid tongue ). The finish is quite dry: all spicy and tannic. Black peppercorn lingers the longest to become the forefront of the finish. Some oak and leather dial up the tannic bite. There is just the faintest hint of citrus but because of the predominant oak and leather, it really tastes like bitter pith. Hmm... I'm definitely a lover of the sweeter things in drink, given that I'm a bourbon man. So this one doesn't quite do it for me when compared with some equally priced and lower priced competition. In this line up, that Anejo still has my heart.