So I like or maybe even love the bay. It is one of my favorite low priced peated whiskies and as I mature as a drinker and become...well a bit of a snob it remains one that I still very much like and come back to. That said I've always kinda ignored this one due to the price and well, I'm not sure it's going to really work. So I bit the bullet, lets find out. nose - I get a distinct mint right off the bat. Heck it's spearmint. Touch of fruity elements but subtle. Then a slightly medicinal or putty clay peat. There's a lot here but it's not overly strong smelling. taste - Overly oaked, charred, BBQ, with a sweet BBQ sauce (some citrus and salty elements here for sure). That's this glass in a nut shell. The the finish is candy cigarettes, light oak, and just sugar crystals. There's a lingering slightly earthy and oak finished here too. Now I can see someone picking up some chocolate, some earth, a lot of dried leaves, and man it's menthol and spearmint all the way through. Do I like this more than the bay? Honestly, not really. It's a bit more complex and there's some older whisky in it. The higher sherry content however doesn't really help this one imo. It doesn't hurt it either, it's just a different expression. This is a HARD whisky to score. OK so talking out loud, it's insanely complex so 4 stars. The complexity has a lot to do with off and youthful notes. So maybe 2 stars? The alcohol is perfectly balanced and the whisky drinks far more full bodied and rich and intense than any 46% whisky, so 3 stars? Hell I'm going 3.25 stars here. There's a case that this is far better and a case that I'm over rating it. Overall a good buy at about 100 bucks. Really complex and a must try for peat lovers. Will I buy again? You know, I'll start buying each year's batch but maybe not backups.