Context: First drink back after a month-long dry stint of not consuming a single drop of alchohol [long story]. Not sure if I was getting back on the horse or off it. Either way, glad that social experiment is over...for now. I promised myself I would drop more detailed reviews moving forward having considered my previous reviews to be in the “palate-building” phase of my whiskey journey. Thus, I tasted a bunch of “entry-level & bottom-shelf” stuff with exception of a couple not-so-entry-Level” [read LagaV DE & Laph 10] on my way to expanding my palate. So feel free to take those reviews with the proverbial “grain” of salt (no whiskey pun intended). For those reviews, I focused purely on what I liked and what stood out the most, without detailed tasting notes. Henceforth however, with my palate “foundation” squarely established, I venture into the more nuanced arena of detailed reviews, albeit with an “Anthology” twist. My mum (& high school teacher) always said that whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well. So...here goes: First Nose : Toasted cereal, right up front. I haven’t checked the mash bill on this but if I was a betting man, I would put chips on a very high corn bill, at least 75% More Nose: Faint vanilla extract, severely burnt caramel and dark-roasted peanuts. Slight alcohol burn, which is surprising given the relatively lower proof (Read: NOT cask strength) Front Palate: Follows closely with the nose...more cereal, very much grain-driven. Mid Palate: Classic bourbon notes of vanilla with some burnt caramel following but so muted and almost unnoticeable that I wonder if I’m imagining it out of anticipation. The grain is very prominent! I also picked up charred peanuts. Finishes with a slight bitter aftertaste (with ice) All in, solid bourbon but was expecting more for the age. It’s possible Eagle Rare 10 may have set the bar a bit high for entry-to-mid level 10yr old bourbons. Since this is not as good as the ER10 (IMHO), which I scored a 4⭐️, I bestow upon this here bourbon, a 3.25⭐️. For some reason, I have a nagging feeling that this will grow on me and get up to a 3.5 / 3.75 by the time it’s all said and done. Maybe it’s because I have a few WT products yet to be explored. Need to keep hope alive and room for improvement. That said, I stand by my initial rating. Time will tell. Check back at the half bottle mark.