Sauternes me on

A leathery, gamey and nicely earthy nose appeared at first approach, with a tinge of old wine cellar must and rye bread. Definitely a sauternes cask, we all agreed. With water we found it opened up beautifully, with stewed fruits in honey, mango jam, hothouse flowers and notes of ... aged sauternes, funnily enough. The palate was drying (and also earthy) initially, with lots of freshly baked brown bread plus traces of camphor and clove oil. Reduction unleashed the sweetness, delivering plentiful citrus curds, orange throat lozenges and rich notes of mineral oil, Iberico ham and old-style shilling ales. A bit of salted dark chocolate and salted almonds in the aftertaste presented more like a traditional sherry cask maturation. This was matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead for three years before being transferred to a second fill sauternes hogshead.