Matured in a combination of oloroso, Palo Cortado, fino and Manzanilla sherry casks until it was bottled in late 2021. Bottled in its natural colour, without chill filtration and at 52% ABV.
Appearance: Lovely and dark. Oak brown with an Irn-Bru orange tinge.
A chaotic swirl mark forms and quickly beads and morphs into medium legs. A nice semi-viscous film coats the glass.
Nose: Dark fruits, blackberries, cherries in syrup, chocolate…Black Forest Gateau in a glass.
There’s a lovely richness, depth and balance to the nose. The ABV pays a row but isn’t in any way domineering or overbearing, allowing those sweeter berry and chocolate aromas to shine through.
Orange segments in condensed milk appear after a while.
Some sweet spice notes underpin the sweeter elements in the form of cinnamon and pour needles.
Palate: Vanilla, red apple, black and white pepper heat, blackberries, molasses and that chocolate.
Again, like the nose, there’s a lovely pleasing rich fruity depth to the palate.
Liquorice, icing sugar, mocha and limoncello emerge next, with a slight chilli heat tingle.
A luxurious sweetness envelopes the other flavours and is a testament to the casks used during maturation.
A lighter note of confectionary sweetness, together with some gentle aniseed appears just before and into the finish too.
Finish: medium to long. The confectionary sugars and aniseed linger for a while, along with black pepper and vanilla.
Overall: One of my favourites so far from these guys. It’s a lovely rich berry-sweet dram which is well-balanced, complex enough to maintain interest but friendly enough that you’d be hard pushed not to like its combination of aromas and flavours.
