The taste is a dream. I was so far "only" vodka in the range of 10-20 and as usual this really beats here like a bomb. Even pure and not cooled easy drinkable and developed an intense but not too heavy alcohol or burning aftertaste. I can therefore fully understand the price. I'm generally not such a big alcohol drinkers, so I can not judge whether it's 40 (or 29.99 from the Amazon offer) is really worth it, but I can only guess times to order a bottle and find out for yourself. You can do "wrong" with this noble bottle anyway schonmal nix!