Colour: amber. Nose: starts a wee bit solventy, which is normal at this strength. It’s even a notch acetic at first nosing, but everything starts to become smoother and rounder after a few seconds, with very lovely notes of café latte, warm sawdust, dried apricots and church incense. I also find a little botrytis, sultanas and just hints of dried roses. At some point I could not not think of some older Willetts. With water: a perfect shortbread/marmalade combination, with a great freshness and no overoakiness whatsoever. Takes water very well. Mouth (neat): hugely concentrated, to the point where it gets very mentholy and kind of lemony (bitter lemon marmalade with some ginger), but those flavours keep it rather fresh, and even approachable. Also Seville oranges, bags of cinnamon and quite some liquorice wood, with a little feeling of ‘sucking your pencil at school’. With water: some kind of cocktail made with cinnamon, various citrus liqueurs and just a touch of ginger. The freshness remains impressive. Finish: quite long, with a few more oaky spices, as almost always (teas), but the lemony signature keeps it ‘high’. A touch of maraschino in the aftertaste. Comments: I’d say these ex-bourbon versions aren’t as wham-bam as the sherried ones, but I find them lovely. Even at 63% vol.!

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