Taster

Nose: Complex and meaty: cooked fruits, polished oak, incense, coffee grounds, medlar, wet tea leaves, dry amontillado, flamed orange peel.

Palate: Perfumed, almost oily start. Good balance. Wood gives grip but there's sweet centre with notes of heather blossom and maraschino cherry.

Finish: Lightly peaty.

Comment: A big boy, but has sufficient sweetness to balance the oak.

Score: 8.5

Taster

Nose: Mint chocolates. Fudge. Calvados. Oak.

Palate: Packed with flavour. Cocoa, Demerara sugar. Ginger.

Finish: Coffeeish dryness. Bittersweet.

Comment: Lovely pinkish mahogany colour. Big esters, together with alcohol, balance a surprising degree of woodiness. Drinks older than it is. Another fogeyish bottling.

Score: 9