Love the (natural?) color - looks like a light brown ale Nose is a combination of caramel/toffee, unknown pleasant fruit, a touch of smoke - so far so good Initial taste is sweet but not cloying, a bit of a pepper burn. Give it a few seconds and the peaty smoke emerges, a bit more than subtle but certainly not ashtray-overpowering. A waft of alcohol vapors as it goes down. No complexity in the finish - the sweetness disappears for the most part except for a dash sticking to the upper palette. Strange: After I wrote the above I was leafing through Distiller (critical research of course!) and I absently took a healthy sip after letting the pour sit for a few minutes. It pretty much bypassed my tongue (so I got no pepper) and went straight into the back of my throat. It tasted like a spoonful of slightly ashed sugar going down - just wonderful. Now I'm left with a pleasing fruity aftertaste. I'm raising my rating. Yup, after letting it breathe for a few minutes it jumped from a B- to a B+ in my book. Really a 3.875 Purchased in NH after reading https://blog.distiller.com/peated-sherry-cask/