Cask No. 95.46

The nose had spun sugar, vanilla slice, preserved plums, Morello cherries, crème de cassis, red wine lees and Barolo Chinato, also some earthy notes – half-smoked cigar, forest floor, leather. The palate conveyed dark sweetness – maple candy, overdone donut, baklava, cherry cake, etc. – but still that earthy, almost mysterious element – charred blackcurrant twigs, New York hot-dogs, oily wood and olive skins. In reduction – tea chests, wine vaults and Black Forest gateau soaked in kirsch on the nose, while the palate combined sharp, zesty notes with prune juice, mulled wine and goulash. After five years in ex-bourbon wood we transferred this into a charred red wine barrique.