The finish on this is very interesting.  Unlike any other super-peated whisky.

N: Fruit cup surprisingly  comes through all the peat smoke.  Like a fermented cider.

P: Smoke and salt balanced well by the mulled wine sweet and spice flavors.

F:  Mmmm good smokiness. 

N: An initial strong kick of intense peat - earthy and rich, with a faintly rubbery tone. Underneath, some grains - barley and a hint of popcorn. Slightly briny tone, lightly perfumey. There's a lot of fruit - cara cara oranges, lemon, and a touch of grilled pineapple with some apricots. There's the faintest, faintest buttercream vanilla as well. Water focuses the nose much more on barley and lemon with the peat.

P: Rich and coating, low heat despite high proof. Plenty of peat - tar, rubber, smoke. Some orange underpins it and lemon too. Slight brine, faint fennel, some hay and gentle malt flavors. Water brings up more barley notes, subdues the fruit influence and adds a bit of white pepper.

F: Eternally long smoke and peat. Cookout versus campfire. The fruit notes pop up a bit - lemon and orange, but they fade. Hints of rubber, some grilled pineapple and a touch of banana. Water makes the finish sweet but with a pronounced fennel kick.

Richly nuanced. Fruity and light around all the massive peat. It's like a December cookout off of PCH with fruits and veggies. Despite the intense ABV it's still fairly light.  

I love the nose on this. It's like what I imagine it would be like to stick your head into a peat bog, smoky, earthy and a tad sweet (okay maybe a bog wouldn't be sweet, I don't know). The palate is at once sweet and smoky but that's about it. It has a lot less complexity than the nose and there is a bit of a chemical element which lasts through to the finish. A drop of water, though, does a lot to bring out some of those more earthy flavors I was missing from the nose and adds a more multi-dimensional quality, bringing in some of that earthiness and even a more distinct wine note, so I'd recommend this one with water (something I rarely find myself saying).

B/B+