Sometimes you go in expecting one thing but instead it turns out to take a totally left turn, into something darker and nastier. Not nasty as in “ this is crap”, but nasty as in if the sweet girl next door suddenly shows up in a crotchless lingerie. This is so unexpected. When I was a young teen, I visited my cousin in Mumbai. There was this really sweet amazingly cute girl living across our building, who’s window was only 10 feet away from ours ( Mumbai is crowded). I asked my cousin to play this one Hindi song “meri samne wali kirdki”, which is a romantic song that starts off as “there’s a piece of the glimmering moon living across my window”. Instead he puts on an equivalent of “take it off and shake it, I wanna see it all”. Such a dark nasty turn. Anyway...she closes the window, and that was the end of my serenade. This is like that...I expect an elegant noble Macallan, but instead I get something else, something darker and much grittier. In a good way. I had the regular Rare Cask, but I preferred this one just for that unexpected turn and complexity. Tons of dark fruits, but with a backbone of smoke. Not too much, but enough to make you second guess what you’re having. Thanks to @Generously_Paul for this sample. It’s money hard earned, so I’m just thankful for him sharing this.