Tasting Notes
The scent we found was that of a burnt, traditional Christmas cake and scorched raisins, as one Panellist even detected exhaust fumes from a tugboat. On the palate we all got madeira wine; however some tasted the dry sercial served with olives, roasted almonds and Kirsch salami, others the sweetest version, a malmsey with chocolate crumpets. Following reduction, the aroma turned sweeter and smoother, with malt extract, apple shisha and lightly burnt babka. To taste, an explosion of incense smoke preceded warming flavours of cinder toffee and pain au raisin. Following 24 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a second fill madeira hogshead.