Definitely a step up from the Light. When I first tried it I thought Bunnahabhain 18..so I had a few sips of that side by side as well. The Bunnahabhain is very heavy treacle toffee dark raisin forward with a fair bit of a sulphur note in flavour even after a year open. The Dark is a mellower and more subtle (once water added) flavour wise. Raisin, prune, cacao, toffee, grape jelly. I do like it very much however the Bunnahabhain 18 is a force of nature (albeit a slightly unbalanced sulphured brutal one) and really puts the HP in its place and overwhelms it flavour wise even at 46%. To be honest after the Bunnahabhain the Dark tastes of next to nothing after a while.. which was definitely not the case when I first tried. I let my palate recover and then the lovely variety of flavours reared their head again. Anyhow the Dark is younger but double the price of the Bunnahabhain and I've spent most if the review waxing on about that so you know what my (slight) preference is! My preference order would be Ice, Fire/Dark, Light I think. 4.25 to 4.5. And that ladies and (mostly) gentlemen after having a large readily at hand pile of samples for the last few years is the last sample dram in my possession. I'd like to thank Master of Malt and Whisky exchange for contributing towards my ability to post notes on a good 400 of my tastings, Dramfest for another 200+ and various other retailers including SM whisky in Aus. I'd say my favourite bar in the world The Last Word contributed another 100 or 2. And last but very much not least various personal friends in NZ as well as Distiller comrades overseas including @PBMichiganWolverine @cascode and @LeeEvolved who via the guise of 'aromatherapy' managed to send me great drams! I think PBM has one more shipment almost with me and then my sample importation endeavours will be drawing to a close.