Tasting Notes
What a nose – wool socks drying by the fire and rally driver’s gloves, a shovelful of flinty gravel, gooseberry bush, dirty martini, hickory smoke and Lapsang Souchong. The unreduced palate had a sour-ish tang of sorrel, dark cherries and cranberry juice, smoked fish with vinegar, boiled sweets in an ashtray; then a finish of liquorice, chilli flakes and cigar smoke. The reduced nose suggested putting on brogues for the ceilidh and (literally) stripping the willow; we also got orange peel, pickled herring, menthol and aniseed. The palate was feisty and tongue walloping – damson jam, lemon juice on nettles, burnt twigs dipped in honey and roasted chestnuts.