Mahogany color with legs that stick to the glass like a spider web. The nose is dry peanut and sawdust, followed by heavily lacquered wood; sherry-barrel and soaked cherry. The richness of the cask adds prune, plum, and pungent stone fruit character. Toasted marshmallow. Prickly winter spiced too, like the label says. A white plastic paint bucket (without the paint). The taste is dominant sherried barrels infused into every particle. More of that prune and spicy sugarplum. Lots of what seems like barley sugars and dry yeast character. A little chew brings out the nutty character, without losing its bite. The feel is gritty sandpaper; it prickles like a carbonated spirit, though I think that might just be the yeasts. The initial burn is a little jarring, but subsides as the palate is coated a bit. The fusel/gas flavors, however, do not abate; burnt matches. The finish is mild tobacco, peanut, plum, toasted coconut. Ashy feel and flavor on the finish. As it lingers, that barrel spice and sherry just lay out like a carpet on the palate. Cherry juice. This is a superior Bourbon: it's very rich, and it uses it's strong flavor profile to blunt any burn there may have been.