Taster

Nose: Caramel toffee laced with sherry-soaked raisins. Plenty of alcohol-soaked oak – old warehouse. Preserved lemons. A medicinal note, like cherry menthol sweets and mown grass.

Palate: This needs water, neat it’s just huge alcohol and a little cherry. Water sweetens everything up, barley notes and roast apples.

Finish: Water brings out a sweetness, cherries in dark chocolate.

Comment: Really benefits from a little water to tame the beast, but not too much as it doesn’t swim that well.

Score: 7.5

Taster

Nose: Pencil shavings and sulphur, hair peroxide. Fresh oak and some gentle bonfire smoke, a hint of incense. Gentle sweetness as well.

Palate: Super dry with puckering tannins. Wood shavings, poached pear, then plenty of cloves and ground ginger.

Finish: Incredibly fiery intensity. It needs water intensifies the sulphur. Dry and puckering.

Comment: The nose is dominated by sulphur, but with water it becomes flat, dry and sulphuric. I’m sure this is someone’s cup of but it’s not mine.

Score: 7