Colour: dark amber. Nose (neat): sure it’s powerful but it’s also rather ‘nosable’, even at such high strength. First it’s very meaty, mainly on smoked ham, then the peat starts to come through, together with quite some coal smoke and flints… And then we have the sherry, with first notes of peonies, blackcurrants and green pepper (almost like a young Bordeaux – premier cru of course) and then the more usual coffee, toffee, fruitcake, chocolate, mint leaves, pepper… The balance is really fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Superbly compact, with strictly no offbeat notes and not the slightest flaw. We’re approaching perfection here, but let’s see what happens with water: ok, it doesn’t really get nicer – which would have been nearly impossible – but water brings out notes of fresh almonds, old books, camphor… Again, wonderful. Mouth (neat): immensely powerful but drinkable, starting on 100% peat plus 100% sherry. Lots of chocolate and quite some salt at the attack, hints of soy sauce, quite some liquorice, balsamic vinegar, pepper, prunes… Hugely concentrated and rich, I guess one could use this one as a sauce (why not with foie gras!) With water: more caramel and more liquorice, gentian eau-de-vie, roots, smoked tea.

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