It has a dark color, so that's obviously artificial. The nose smells pretty much not there, with some light, fake caramel and a touch of fruit. The palate is weak and it immediately tastes artificial. There are a few flavors here, but none of them stand out as anything more than a weak attempt to taste like whiskey. It's very watered down and has a sugary sweetness mixed with artificial caramel. The mild fruit flavors taste more like a scratch and sniff smells than like actual fruit. In a direct comparison, Paddleford Creek tastes much more real and has more flavor, though it is still a weak whiskey. This isn't as bad as I feared it would be, but it tastes. A heck of a lot like nothing and the flavors that it does have are not very good. I wouldn't call this a disappointment because I didn't expect more, but I certainly don't like it. My palate is toasted now, but it might be even worse than the 8 I'm giving it. No, the 7 I'm giving it. This is priced way too high - at least get Evan Williams Black instead. Wow, this is so much worse than Evan Williams Black. If my palate were in better shape, I'd probabaly cry in anguish. The palate is kind of oily with a gross gasoline flavor that brings in a bit of smoke mixed with some bad youthful sweetness. There's quite a bit of flavor, but it's bad flavor. This isn't absolutely undrinkable, but it's very bad. It doesn't have the richness of Clan MacGregor, but it also doesn't have the disgusting sulfur. Clan MacGregor has a nice bit of fruit too, but the sulfur is really bad. This has less flavor and its flavor is bad, but it almost could be mixable. It's hard to say which is worse between these two, but I think I'll still give that ignoble victory to Clan MacGregor. When I say that this could be mixed though, I mean that it might be possible to conceal with enough fruit juice. It tastes disgusting and the price is absurdly high.