Rating: 17/23 N: Spicy and surprisingly not as full as the Wild Turkey 101. There's a lot of cinnamon and black pepper with some lighter tart cherry in the back with some vanilla. Some nice toasted oak comes out bringing a kind of dry peanut smell in. It's a really nice and unique nose. P: The spice and smoke hit immediately, along with some sort of floral mineral sweetness and vanilla. I get lots of cinnamon along with some black pepper and clove. As it goes along, the clove quickly turns into wood and the cherry makes its way in. The cherry has an orange element with it, sort of like it was combined with orange juice in preparation to make cherries jubilee. The toasty wood with some nuttiness comes out late in the game. Unlike WT 101, I don't get any alcohol flavor out of this one. It's an easy sipper. F: The cinnamon and toasty wood remain here, as does a little bit of tart cherry and vanilla. It's nothing super interesting, but it's tasty. Way into the finish, I get some bitter, slightly tart dark chocolate - I'm thinking about 60%. I didn't like this when I poured it from the neck. A few days later, I'm sure the oxygen hasn't done much, but I appreciate it more. It's fairly dry with not a ton of fruit and rich caramel, but there is a lot of vanilla and the crucial spiciness coming out. Spicy would definitely be my primary word to describe this bourbon. Critically, it isn't harsh, but it is full of spicy kick. The vanilla fits in nicely, as does a big woodiness that is a bit on the sawdust side, but tastes fairly aged - if not super rich - and also carries a nice bit of smoke. Initially, I thought that this was inferior to the Russell's Rye 6, but now I like its definition of flavors a bit more. This is definitely less rich, but it has a few flavors that it does well and positions artfully. There's a bit of that Eagle Rare elegance to it. I'd say Eagle Rare is a bit better, but this is a nice sort of elegant bourbon. The Russell's Reserve Single Barrel (at least the one on my shelf) is a lot better than this (not a ludicrous amount better, but substantially better). I'd put the WT Rare Breed and RR SiB a little above Eagle Rare, with a slight nod to the RR SiB because it hides its alcohol better. This and Eagle Rare are pretty close, both being better than Legent. I don't recall what I gave Eagle Rare before, but this feels very 17-18 to me. I'm going with a 17. I'll probably be buying another bottle at some point since this seems to be pretty good VFM.