I'm not sure what compelled me to buy this but I did and hey now I can share with you guys a review, and unlike 90% of the reviews I've seen, I didn't get the bottle free. Nose - At first I get really a lot of bourbon elements. Vanilla and light oak with some caramel and rye spice. Digging in more some tea leaves and "green" sweetness seem to come out. An ever so slight menthol. Then there's an earthy barn/oak not at the end. Taste - The taste unlike the nose is a journey and explosive. Opens sweet and fruity with orchard fruits and caramel meets some brown sugar. Then the spices come storming in very spicy, very biting on the tongue. Winter green mint, rye bread, tea leaves and perhaps some butter scotch (darn was that a note from the bottle or did I get it?). I have to assume the toasted barrels are imparting a good amount of sweetness upfront that's then balanced with some really spicy charred rye casks. OK this is good whisky. It's VERY good actually. Balanced, cask strength, and while I wouldn't call 6 years well aged, it's not horrible in the world rye. So at 180 for a bottle? Yeah the price is more packaging than the whisky but I really do feel this is a solid 100 dollar bottle which isn't something I say often about rye. 3.25, firmly above average and while it's a bit expensive, I'm not upset with the purchase. If you're a huge rye fan, this might be worthy of a purchase but you'd have to really be into rye for the price to be justified.