Rating: 15/23 N: Floral, mineral, banana, wood, semi-sweet chocolate, mild spices (hints of baking spices and a dash of smoky chili), a bit of vanilla (surprisingly little though), a hint of earth and tobacco. I could go either way on this nose. It's solid, but the mineral is a bit much and that banana could really be a problem on the palate. P: Less banana than I feared by far. The mineral is stronger though. Mineral, wood, herbal, and smoke flavors are at the fore. It's quite balanced and complex. Vanilla comes in and there is some sort of sweetness in here, but it's perhaps more like a light semi-sweet chocolate mixed with some sugar water rather than brown sugar or caramel. Actually, a fairly complex and tasty palate. There is some heat on it, but it isn't harsh. F: The mineral, herbal (some tobacco and earth), and floral flavors linger, along with some wood. It's lighter than I'd like, but not overly so and the sweetness stays just enough to keep it in balance. A surprisingly nice finish, actually. I prefer the palate, but nothing here upsets me. I think that this is better than my last tasting was. I was worried at first that there might be too much banana here, but it turned out that there actually wasn't much. The minerals do make the profile lighter than I wish it were though. Still, for $33, I wouldn't turn up my nose at a bottle of this. This is somewhere between my bottle of 1792 Single Barrel and Russell's Reserve 10, putting it right in the 15 to 16 range. I like that is has more complexity than the 1792, but it is milder than the Russell's, which I already consider to be fairly mild. I think that mildness is a deal-breaker on the 16, so I'm going with 15. At $30-35, I still think that this is a fine purchase. At $40 though, that would be pushing it.