I haven't reviewed THIS? I need an excel file or something to track my whisky and reviews as this is just out of hand! Batch 62 59.9% About 35% left in this bottle and I'm guessing 5-18 months open. I have no idea. Still available locally for about 87 dollars though I know if I cross state lines I'm looking at 110. Nose - the first impression is this is a bit spirit forward. Alcohol is high enough to really prevent me from getting good nosing notes. As I dig in it's a very dry nose, oak is very much forward, and the sherry notes are well also a bit dry themselves. I get more of a dusty type of varnish than a traditional sherry punch. Only the faintest of sweetness is in the back. With water, this is a completely different whisky. It's now sweet and fruity. Vanilla is jumping out of the glass, red fruits have come out to play, berries and raisins, and a hint of milk chocolate. Taste - Here I get more richness, chocolate, toffee, fudge, some still almost shoe cleaner like notes, perhaps butter scotch, and there's a distinct oak. At the very back end I even get a bit of a cashew/walnut nutty note. OK lets add the water - it is instantly sweeter, chocolate has faded a bit but it yields a more complete and more traditional sherry forward experience. It is still dessert over a light oak note but now more fruity and certainly more inviting. I remain a fan of what is going on here. There are a lot of these CS NAS offerings or near CS (macallan?) and they all offer inconsistency from batch, a lack of refinement, and at times pretty good whiskies. I think A'Bunadh and tamdhu have been the leaders in this area just putting out overall better product then the glendronach, glengoyne, and certainly macallan offerings of late. Still, there is a balancing act that we as whisky fans will find ourselves with on these bottles. At these prices there are some outstanding independent bottlings of even yes first fill sherry casks at 8-12 years old that can be found at reasonable prices. I am finding each time I go back to these NAS bottles, even ones I have just had open, I keep thinking the same thing. I love the rich flavor, I love the abv kick, but gosh...it's harsh and unrefined. I guess where I'm going is that I used to find that these huge abv sherry bombs would hit me with intense flavor and it would mask the youthful exuberance of the spirit. Today i find myself picking that up and even finding myself questioning the casks used in these blends as if perhaps they were simply trying to get rid of a few bad casks and mask them in the high abv blend. Meanwhile other than the 43% offerings, I'm being drawn more and more back into the 12-18 year old whiskies which I used to feel needed more age (lets get into the PREMIUM stuff) or more proof. Anyway 2.75 score for me on this one. Water really breaks this one open and brings out a very nice oloroso sherry, but I still find it overly drying, bitter where it doesn't need to be, over oaked (how?), and simply a bit too unrefined. At under 100 dollars if you've become a CS sherry bomb fan, this is a good if not great option, but don't expect the finest quality whisky behind the alcohol and sherry bomb. This does beg the question if I went back to the macallan classic cuts (which I scored higher), where would I score them now? Even in the last 3 months I feel I've more and more been noticing the lack of refinement is just more and more apparent.