Nose: Caramelized brown sugar and vanilla, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. Dark fruits. Sweet red apples with orange. Slight cream cheese cake frosting thing going on. Barley in the back - slightly toasty cereal grain character. Toasted sesame seeds. Palate: Smooth, undoubtedly 80 proof. Grain is much more up front - the barley is doing a dance. Honey, oak, tannin. Stone fruits. Luxardo cherries. Roasted peanuts/almonds. The slightest cave mustiness. Distant vegetal note. Other notes: This was the first bottle I bought without knowing anything other than what the label says. The nose offers up plenty to explore, and though the palate is relatively muted, the total experience is well worth the price of admission. My only real criticisms here are that the palate does not deliver what the nose suggests, and there's a lot of bass and midrange without much treble. As always, my rating is an attempt at being as objective as possible without my subjective biases swaying things too much in one way or another.