Looks nice in the glass. With this being a NAS, and as dark as it is, I'm inclined to say there's added color, but so what? Lace forms after several minutes, but it's not delicate, instead appearing large and gaudy, like the interior decorations on an overzealous Indian subcontinent lorry. After 10 minutes it has formed a uniform ring almost 1/4" high around the entire surface. A good swirl coats heavily, and the layer holds solid for 20 seconds or so before it starts to form thick legs that take several minutes to reach bottom. Nose is tart berries, like ground blackberry and cherry without added sugar, and then there's a rich, oily apple smell that immediately reminds me of Calvados, and finally tobacco leaf and vanilla bean. There is no smoke, no peat, no pepper. Palate is rich and also a little prickly - it weighs heavy but doesn't go full-on sweet. The Calvados from the nose is here, but so is a LOT of white pepper, with tobacco leaf and tobacco ash playing third-string support cast. Middle dries out, and this now feels young and a bit brash, almost hot, with pencil shavings and overcooked pancetta moving to a bitter dark cocoa powder and finally leaving only the white pepper still tingling at the close. This is much different than previous bottles from a decade ago, which I recall being more of a lesson on what Talisker 10 can be when it goes to an upper-class finishing school and knocks off the rough edges. And now, as then, I still prefer the original 10 year formula, with salted meat and peat and black pepper. Talisker 10 is a unique profile all to itself, and I don't see the value (other than more bottles on shelf) of changing what works so well.