The nose was a marriage between delicate sweetness (chocolate, candy floss and burnt custard tarts) and a more muscular smoke devil (dying bonfire embers and fish smokehouses). Things were similar on the palate as we found chocolate honeycomb bars, parma violets and sugar-coated fennel seeds on the sweet side, but the smoke, soot and ash were somewhat more subdued than expected.

The reduced nose conjured tarry driftwood and old Spanish galleons, coal cellars and Chinese roast duck. The palate had blackcurrant and lemongrass, humbugs, aniseed and ginger, smoked trout paté and twigs dipped in tar and honey. Following 14 years in ex-bourbon wood, this was transferred into a 2nd fill Spanish oak Oloroso hogshead.