Well down to my final 10 samples..I was digging around for stuff for our holiday next week and found them tucked away. Not one to waste an opportunity I thought might as well crack a couple open given no work tomorrow. This and the Ardmore 30 year old were similar style and abv so a head to head tasting was in order I thought. I used to rate Balvenie however the last lot haven't impressed me that much. This one you get the white pepper, green wood characteristics quite strongly. It is a lovely dram very viscous and full of flavour. But a 4.6 average rating here leaves me scratching my head a bit. More like a 4 to 4.25 territory. If it wasn't for the bitter green wood finish it'd be .25 to .5 higher.