Solid, smells like oak and maple, somewhat smoky, and your standard toffee and caramel. Tastes mostly how it smells, only getting a subtle maple and vanilla taste on this bottle, much less than that of TX whiskey, also less sweet. Also getting the taste of leather. The overall flavor is quite strong, and sharp. Others seemed to get much more of a maple flavor than I got, which is disappointing because I really liked that dessert-whiskey type quality I’ve had before in some blended whiskeys. I will say this is perhaps about as much maple and vanilla as you’ll get in a bourbon, so it’s something of a middle ground if you don’t want whiskey that sweet.