Tasting Notes
At first nosing we found heather honey, menthol tobaccos, aged sweet wines and old leather, plus mineral oil, sultanas, rancio and dark honey. Water evolved things nicely towards polished shoe leather, hickory smoke, game meats, herbal cough syrups and spiced honey cake; rich, robust and complex. The palate evoked damp, earthen-floored wine cellars, leaf mulch, aged black tea, pipe tobacco and beef stock, with a tang of camphor and crushed peanuts in the background. Water brought out exotic hardwood resins, long-aged sweet chenin blanc, white mushrooms, overripe oranges and lanolin. After maturing for 17 years in a bourbon hogshead, this was transferred to a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.