Tasting Panel Notes

An impressive and busy nose encompassed figs, dates, raisins and prunes, demerara sugar, marzipan, sticky toffee pudding, treacle, leather, black tea and tobacco. A sherry bomb exploded on the palate – giving us fruitcake, manuka honey and brown sugar sweetness to be sure, but it was also mouth-puckering and dry as ashes, with tannic oak, oatcakes, more tobacco, leather and cloves. The nose combined plum jam, damson crumble, sour cherries and candied lemon with nutty, woody evocations of bodegas and tonelerías. On the palate, some savoury notes now appeared (wild boar salami, yeast extract and gravy granules), as did medicinal impressions (ointment and bandages), Christmas spices and hot 'n' sour soup.