Taster

Nose: Hugely complex: perfumed with dried apricot, pear, orange and cinnamon. There's honey, hazelnut, orange blossom water, spices and light smoke.

Palate: Intensely concentrated mid-palate with a mass of honeyed red and black fruits, spice, apple. Superb balance and harmony between all the elements.

Finish: Sweet toffee. Smoke.

Comment: Proof, if it were needed, that this is a first-growth distillery.

Score: 9

Taster

Nose: Buttery richness. Butterscotch pudding. Bread and butter pudding. Honey.

Palate: Astonishingly syrupy smooth. Still evoking thoughts of the sweet trolley, but farther south; the honeyed pastries of the Balkans. Then a suggestion of chocolate powder hints at tiramisu.

Finish: Bitter chocolate. Terry's chocolate oranges.

Comment: The ultimate dessert dram. Beautifully composed.

Score: 9.3