Tasting: 13/23 We'll have to see how this goes. I enjoyed Rock Oyster, but The Epicurean sadly didn't do it for me. N: I get some nice sherry sweetness on the nose. There's fig and some lightly, slightly oily caramel with a faint hint of buckwheat produced by the kind of youthful maltiness. This is somewhere between a young (10 to 12 year) Aberlour and a young Glenfarclas, which is a nice place to be, honestly. There's some of that Glenfarclas vegetal funk but it's also somewhat mellower like Aberlour, though it lacks the characteristic floral side of the fruitiness. There's a bit of bite from the alcohol and this is clearly quite young, but it isn't bad. P: This is harsher than Aberlour 12 is, but it's also richer with some more personality and the harshness could be explained by the higher ABV. I get that fig and caramel with the.dash of buckwheat. There's more of an orange flavor to the sherry here, though it loses that sort of rose enhancement that brings out the red fruit in Aberlour 12. A bit of that vegetal flavor makes it through, which helps with the richness and gives this a bit more personality than Aberlour. The youthful alcohol is quite noticeable, but not entirely bad. F: The light fruitiness and some alcohol remain. There's a bit more alcohol bitterness as well. It's largely a more muddled version of the palate with more alcohol. It's not a very exciting finish. First impression: this is a surprisingly successful dram! It's a real stand-out from Speyside in the budget price range. The flavor is decently complex despite it being a blend, yet it doesn't taste overly young. This has more smoke and funk to it than Aberlour 12 does, but it isn't funky to the extent that younger Glenfarclas tends to be. It's pretty complex and balanced. It might not taste all that old, but it does taste well executed. Aberlour 12 does have more sweet fruitiness though. This emphasizes dark dried fruits (e.g. prunes) less than Glenfarclas 105 does, having more of a young tawny character. At times, I think I prefer the clean execution of Aberlour 12, but this is always quite close in quality. Really, I think that it's a very situational call. I can imagine this being as low as a 12, but really I see it at more of a 13. With Aberlour 12 at a 13, I think that a 13 is most appropriate for this. I can definitely imagine a 14 for both this and Aberlour 12 in the future, but I don't see how either would reach a 15. At $30-35, this would be easy to recommend. At $55, it's a tougher sell. I don't think I'd buy a bottle at that price.