Beautiful dark color, with long, syrupy legs that fall somewhat erratically back to the bottom. Nose starts rich with raisin and plumb, and then goes even sweeter, presenting dried sugared dates. After the nose I was eagerly anticipating the palate, but it was not to be...Palate is smooth, sweet and heavily sherried. Sherried to the point that it masks the other flavors that I can almost discern hiding in the background. In what should be a cacophony of rich, sweet fruits, I instead find only a stale bowl of dried nuts and a lot of grainy notes; almost like eating a box of grape nuts without any milk. The finish is moderately spicy, with just a hint of liveliness popping in to save the whole thing from irredeemable flatness before it dries to a slight linger of wooded sherry. Macallan and I have a longstanding non-symbiotic relationship. It makes me spend my money for the promise of great things, only to be repeatedly let down by the all-too-similar flavors. And sadly, that's a flavor that I find not all that appealing. For my money, I'd rather have a bottle of top-shelf Irish, and another of top-shelf bourbon, with a little remaining for a good 22oz IPA...........................This is the musical equivalent of Hoobastank's "The Reason". A post-grunge band that capitalized on all the experimental wonders of the original grunge, but when signed to an album took away all the even slightly out-of-the-norm in their music, to become the bland, middle of the road, "good enough" for pre-pubescent teens that really don't understand that real music is designed to make you think, not just be numbed into nothingness.