Expert Review

Nose: Appetising, mouth-watering. Sweet fruit chews and fresh fruits (peach, ripe melon and a spirited top-note of zesty orange peel) over a base of vanilla sponge, with a hint of fresh-planed oak. Or perhaps, simply, fruit crème-filled dark chocolates or vanilla-rich rum-and-raisin ice cream. Later, a medley of sultanas, soft, over-ripe bananas and honey on a cinnamon Danish. Water brings up the vanilla sponge and planed oak, with a mossy note that evokes dessert grapes eaten straight from a paper carton. Palate: Immediate, with fresh acidity: lightly sweet and oily, with smooth chocolate and vanilla, a spicy warmth and a slightly bitter pungency emerging on the mid-palate. At reduced strength the texture becomes softer and the taste cooling and creamy. Burnt sugar and cocoa against a developing background of wooden pencil boxes, joined by raisins, dates, allspice and a trace of white chocolate. Finish: Long and complex. Oily, with finely coating dry, dark chocolate and fresh oak-wood. A rising pungency offers up espresso coffee and charred notes of treacle toffee and chocolate cake. Warming with water: softer and creamier now, with aromatic sandalwood.