Color: Nice deep "rusty" amber. Nose: Tart apples; cinnamon red hots; molasses, and chocolate covered cherries. Wow! A very sweet and promising nose. Please, palate... please live up to this nose.... Palate: First pour (Drank neat) Potent first sip! Knocked my socks off. A full-on assault of heat and tingly spice. The 126.4 proof makes sure you stand and take notice! Ha! Once the heat diminishes, a nice chocolatey quality settles on the tongue. Thick, chewy, syrupy mouth feel. Chest hug lingers long after the initial blast. Second sip.... still very spicy, but with less heat. This stuff is going to require a couple drops of water to tamp things down a bit.... which it does. The water cuts the heat, and helps to reveal some oak... oak char. A syrupy sweetness starts to develop with each sip. But, "spicy and sweet" is too simple. I'm looking for more from this. I KNOW there are some really good things hiding in there, just by going on the nose. I may need to add a large ice ball for pour number two.... This juice definitely benefits from adding ice, as far as mellowing things out. Still not getting a lot more, profile-wise, however. No great revelations or more to report. It's Booker's: proofy, spicy, oaky on the palate but with a much more interesting nose. Finish: Fairly long by ways of a lingering spicy tingle and oak char. Final Thoughts: If you are a fan of Booker's, you will probably like this very much. It's got everything that you would expect from Booker's. But as for me....? I don't mean to be a downer, but I think I am done with Booker's. The last several batches I've had have all sort of been the same to me. It's like Booker's could be a singular bottle in the Beam lineup, and not be a "batch" release. Lately, I've been way more interested in seeking-out different bottles from different distilleries and less interested in to trying to find every new batch release — whether it be Booker's, or Larceny, or Elijah Craig, etc. etc. 3.75 stars for being a solid, consistent addition to a heralded brand. But nothing to write home about, in my humble opinion...and I'm glad I paid about as good a price as I could ever expect to find. I'd have been a little put off, had I spent what I typically have had to spend for each new Booker's release.