Nose: Sweet corn, candy-floss, vanilla, pencil-shavings, orange zest, a low-key but pleasant oak note and there's an agreeable creamy, nutty, leathery quality. I don't detect the faintest whiff of anything smoky on this nose - maybe a sootiness like barrel char but it's vanishingly faint. Palate: Sweet and gently spicy-hot arrival. The development brings out vanilla, corn syrup and very mild cinnamon spice and light orange oil. The texture is juicy and silken (much more so than Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Bourbon) and there is a demerara sugar presence in the background. Finish: Medium. Sweetly creamy with a touch of baked apple, sour cherry and spice as it tails out into a well balanced aftertaste. Although the nose may seem initially light and a little shy it has a density of character that will fool you. I tasted this together with a dram of the standard Wild Turkey bourbon, and in comparison the standard seemed spirity and sharp whereas Longbranch was rich and enfolding. It is creamier and definitely sweeter than the regular bottling. This is almost certainly due to the oak and mesquite "refinement" because as far as I know this is just regular Wild Turkey bourbon-mashbill distillate given something akin to Lincoln-county filtration - and filtration is what it is, it's not flavour enhancement. The mesquite contribution lends no smoke to the profile that I could detect (however please note that in Australia this whiskey is sold at 80 proof instead of 86, so it's possible that 3% extra alcohol may carry a little more smoky character). There is certainly a subtle sooty, charcoal-like presence, but it's nowhere near the sort of smokiness you get in an Islay single malt. A pleasant sipping whisky, good neat or on the rocks, but as a mixer or with Coke I found it to be a bit too sweet and lacking in presence, so ironically I preferred their rougher Kentucky Straight Bourbon for that purpose. "Average" : 79/100 (2.75 stars)