Color is between golden and amber with a warm, almost orange hue. The nose is forward with familiar peat smoke and plum aroma. The background is filled with oak, leather, toffee brittle and cloves. The pallet has a smooth, thick mouth feel. Many of the aromas come across on the pallet in the finish is long. There is a toffee, malty sweetness with dark cherry and stone fruit flavors. The oak and smoke return at the end, and then sweet fruits again, and then smoke... the flavors play around long after the last sip. I feel significantly more sophisticated after this dram - almost as though I’ve traveled the world. The smoke and the sea of Scotland, the sweet vanillans and leather of a day at a Kentucky horse race and the fruity notes that leave me wondering if sherry casks didn’t in fact play a part. Grown-up whiskey, should never be without a bottle.