I'd say that it was a surprise to see that, as billed,this stacks up so well against Blue, except that I'm not that big of a fan of Blue (Green is the king of the realistically priced Walkers) so it doesn't take much. This is a good, solid scotch and a good bottle to keep on hand for respected guest because of its stature and presentation but not likely to be your new "must have on hand" bottle. Four stars is dead on at this price, cut it by a third and it would rise to a 4.3-4.7 in that range with the added value boost. I think this is a marketing issue. They should have billed it as the Platinum killer and priced accordingly. You don't take on Walker from the top of the (again, realistically priced) line, you have to climb the ladder.