Tasting Panel Notes

Tart and sweet, the nose gave us toffee popcorn, apricot flan and tinned mandarins with custard, golden grapes shrivelling on the vine and cranachan components (raspberries, honey, toasted oats). In the main, the neat palate was fruity – brambles, yellow plums, golden sultanas, rum and raisin ice cream – but the finish was complex and enigmatic, with suggestions of forest floor, spearmint and chilli rice crackers. That enigma continued on the reduced nose – chocolate honeycomb bars, apricot danish and meringues; fine-cut rolling tobacco (blending Virginia, burley, and oriental tobaccos), talc and toasted oak. The palate, beautifully matured, combined barley sugar, honey and marmalade with autumnal fruity abundance and mellow wood.