After drinking the Balvenie 12 Doublewood I can say that the 17 DW lives up to its reputation. In the 12 you experience a nose of Vanilla, Grapes (which was nice), Nuts and Honey. In the 17 you nose Vanilla for sure. The expert taster say's "orchard fruits" which I find hard to grasp but i sense a slight slight musk smell which this could depict. i also can pick out the honey as you enter the mid to end nose when this becomes present. Tasting this dram I get the honey and chocolate shavings taste. It's subtle, but there. This dram is 43% abv which is a nice improvement from the 12 yo version. Although it's not a big difference, it was a well needed increase to give more variety on the tongue. Pricing of this bottle is too much. I paid rougly $175 CND after conversion from the US due to this being on someone's shelf for a while. To buy this at the LCBO in Ontario, Canada you'll be paying $299 which is too much money. I really enjoy this dram and can say it's top notch, but paying $299 CND i'm pretty confident there are other options out there just as refined but have a lower price tag. Snag it if you're a collector, but anything more that 2 racks is a waste of denero.