This has quite a rich complex nose, with acetone, rye, some vanilla and even herbal notes.  The taste has pepper at first and then some coffee before a bitter finish.  With water the nose sweetens and the taste gets smoother (this whiskey was named Black Velvet due to it's "signature" smoothness) and develops some brown sugar, vanilla and baker's chocolate notes.  The finish gets a little more oaky, even resiny, and stays quite bitter.  Lots of familiar Canadian whisky notes in this expression (eg acetone in nose and a bitter finish), perhaps for that reason it comes across as "just another Canadian blend"  but to be fair it's perhaps a little better than some other more well known brands probably due to the extra maturation time Black Velvet enjoys.