Taster

Nose: The colour suggests European oak and the nose is a classic dry amontillado: resin, clove, savoury notes-roasted almond, flamed orange peel, smoked tea, some toffee.

Palate: Heavy sherry flavours, almond especially. A slightly oily but tannic feel. There's perfumed smoke but the spirit is beefed up by heavy oak flavours.

Finish: Smoked cheese.

Comment: The richest by far, but all of it wood-driven.

Score: 7.3

Taster

Nose: Big brutal sherry. Winey. Quite beefy. Marmite. Overpowering sherrywood. Tobacco.

Palate: Toffee but with rancid butter notes. Cardboard. No subtlety in that sherry first-fill. Where has the malt gone?

Finish: Long but bitter. Smoky burnt wood.

Comment: You need to be sherry-mad to love this. Water releases more pleasant fruitcake notes on the nose but more harshness on the palate.

Score: 5.8