Home for the holidays

This felt homely. We found a comforting, warm lemon sponge on the nose, joined by yesterday's newspaper on the mantlepiece in an old wood-panelled room, with its thick hessian carpet trodden by leather slippers. The palate was equally embracing, with a triple-stacked toffee – vanilla, treacle and chocolate flavours – dipped in ginger syrup and crowned with freeze-dried hedgerow fruits. Water emphasised raisins and pencil shavings, with a woody nutmeg landing atop grape jelly on honeyed oak. After 13 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this to a first fill sherry hogshead for the remainder of its maturation.