Whiskyfun April 2007

April 2007 - part 1 <--- April 2007 - part 2 ---> May 2007 - part 1


April 30, 2007

TASTING – TWO 1990 HIGHLAND PARKS

Highland Park 16 yo 1990/2007 (57.1%, Signatory, cask #15687, 512 bottles)

Colour: straw – gold. Nose: typical of most Highland Parks by Signatory (interesting to see consistency here), starting on fresh butter, light honey, apple juice and fresh milk ‘from the cow’. More oak after that, lactones, white pepper and ginger, getting back to honey (should be heather, shouldn’t it?) It gets also quite flinty. A very ‘natural’ unsherried Highland Park. With water: huge soapiness at first (which, again, is normal), getting then mashier, milkier and yeastier. Rebirth? Hints of mint and celery.

Mouth (neat): creamier, oily, thick, almost like fruit jelly. Apples, grapefruit, apricot… But it gets a little burning, it really needs water on the palate (provided his swims well). Let’s see… right, it gets even fruitier, on orange drops, pineapple drops, marshmallows… Full of youth indeed. Finish: quite long, still very fruity, with the oak starting to appear (white pepper). A pretty good youngish indie Highland Park. 84 points.

Highland Park 15 yo 1990/2005 (57.2%, OB, for Sweden, cask #1602)

Colour: full amber. Nose: punchy and powerful, very candied, sherried, with quite some smoke, roasted nuts and praline. Notes of orange marmalade. It’s a little too powerful though, water is needed. With water: gets even smokier, mineral, ‘wild’ (mushrooms, dead leaves) and more chocolaty as well. Beautiful dryness, with also whiffs of old library, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, cider apples… Perfect sherried HP I think, already quite complex at 15yo. Mouth (neat): quite superb I must say. Maybe a tad rough but the sherry is rather perfect, toffeeish, smoked, toasted, honeyed and candied, with a lively fruitiness to balance the whole (tangerines, oranges). Perfectly drinkable at cask strength but let’s still try it with a little water: that doesn’t really bring it any extra-dimension but it didn’t need any. Maybe more notes of liqueur-filled chocolate. Finish: very long, very compact, candied, orangey and still quite smoky. Excellent, perfect dryness. 90 points.

MUSIC – Recommended listening: Stan Webb's Chicken Shack doing their Strange situations.mp3. The band's still around and we even had a gig review in 2004, so please buy their music.


April 29, 2007

CONCERT REVIEW by Nick Morgan
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR The Barbican, London, April 16th 2007

I’m sorry Serge, but I have to confess that sometimes even I get it wrong. I rushed at these tickets as soon as the gig was announced. Van der Graaf Generator! Wow! And there in my mind was this hazy memory of student parties and yet another fairly pleasing ELP meets King Crimson prog rock band, useful gatefold sleeve albums and all. And I had a striking image of Peter Hammill, long curly locks, that slightly effeminate boyish look, cheesecloth shirt, and a voice from paradise. And I’m sure he did nice folky stuff after the band split, or between their several manifestations in the seventies – and didn’t he have a sweet-lipped and sweet-singing sister Claire Hammill, sweeping Indian print cotton skirts, coy in fields of daisies and wildflowers, who teamed up with Mike Oldfield on Tubular Bells and all of that stuff? And for what it’s worth the Photographer was sure she met one time band member Charles Dickie at some hippy hangout in Oxford. Yep - it was all pretty clear to me and my expectations apparent as we arrived at the Barbican for this rare London appearance.

From 1967 to 1978 the band went through various line ups and had the usual break-ups before calling it a day. Front man Hammill pursued a prodigious solo career. Then in 2005 the band reformed with Hammill, saxophonist David Jackson, keyboards man Guy Evans and drummer Hugh Banton. A new album, Present, was released and the band toured with a major show at the Royal Festival Hall, available in its entirety on CD as Real Time. Following this, Jackson departed from the fray once more, taking with him the most distinctive element of the Van der Graaf sound, but the threesome returned to tour in 2007.

Peter Hammill (right) with Demis Roussos
in 1977. Sorry, I mean with Phill Collins

Did I mention that, like the Fat Ladies, they’ve just come back from Limbourg (“a weird place” as someone described it on Hammill’s bulletin board) – that should have told me something. So should the audience – many of whom (without wishing to be rude Serge) would not have been out of place at one of your whisky shows. And in fact I had a serious double take when I bumped into one who must have been Serge’s twin brother – so everyone can tell what they looked like. Or at least the relatively normal ones. There are a lot of single guys here – arms tightly folded, trousers too short, bodies slightly rocking with the haunted eyes of deserted East European orphans in some dreadful children’s home. Some of them are too close – remember, keep an eye on them whatever happens.

They take the stage fifteen minutes late. How can I describe what happened next? Ok – let the black notebook speak: ”singing flat”; “Johnny Rotten”; “echo pedal”; “Spinal Tap lyrics”; “organist bass pedals”; “delicate high-hat cymbal”; “can they really have been this bad”; “man across aisle rocking violently and dribbling”;” strained strangulated and often painfully out of tune vocals”. You see, Serge I just hadn’t done my research and didn’t realise they were really supposed to sound like that.

No wonder the Photographer – as deluded as I was - was nearly lynched when she surmised loudly halfway through Hammill’s opening vocal efforts, “Christ, he’s really lost it hasn’t he?”. So I suppose it was a love it or hate it moment – and to be frank Hammill’s vocal delivery is so extreme and (until J. Rotten produced a fairly good pastiche of it) unique, that it’s pretty hard to love it at the first hearing. In fact, perhaps I’d excised it from my memory. And whilst I could forgive the voice I still can’t find it in my heart to be so charitable about the lyrics, sometimes described as Hammill’s “anguished poetry”.

I mean I know we all sang along to Pete Sinfield’s ‘Court of the Crimson King’ and stuff like that back in the good old 1970s, but that was because we had to make our own entertainment then, and frankly I’d be embarrassed to own up to it now (oops!). So it’s one of those moments when you either shake your head solemnly at the profundity of it all, or simple giggle uncomfortably. Sorry VdGG fans – but I took the giggle route. Take the opener, ‘Childlike faith in childhood’s end’: “As anti-matter sucks and pulses periodically the bud unfolds, the bloom is dead, all space is living history”. Well possibly, but then think of this from ‘Every bloody emperor’, “Unto nations nations speak in the language of the gutter; trading primetime insults the imperial impulse extends across the screen”. Pretty gloomy schoolboy radicalism wouldn’t you say? And certainly not for me. No – we’ll draw a veil over the rest, apart from the moment when Hammill sang “Am I really here?” – at that point my empathy was complete.

Of course the fans (in other words everyone else in the Barbican apart from the Photographer and yours truly) loved every minute of it, and possibly quite rightly so. Guy Evans was astonishing on keyboards and bass pedals (even though he couldn’t help it sounding like, well … ELP meets King Crimson), and Banton’s ability to move swiftly from sublime delicacy to driving rhythms was outstanding. And of course Mr Hammill is an accomplished guitarist. Love it or hate it, take it or leave it. So we left as ‘Man-erg’ came to a close (“The killer lives inside me; yes, I can feel him move”), which was just as well. As I looked back and encore ‘Still life’ began I could see the rocking wraiths rising from their seats like an army of Nosferatus. We closed and barred the door behind us, and made a run for it – “somnolent muster - now the dancing dead forsake the shelter of their secure beds, awaken to a slumber whose depths they dread…” Blimey, that’s enough!

Oh, and by the way, if you’re interested, Van der Graaf Generator is a spelling mistake. - Nick Morgan (concert photographs by Kate)

Thanks Nick, but holy featherless crow, so you met with my twin brother Albert! We lost touch in the early 1980’s when, as a dedicated anglophile - and Thatcherian -, he decided to move to London’s West End. I've heard he flew to the Falklands at some point (I think he had a malt distillery project there with his buddy Ronnie van Hilversum, “the southernmost British distillery” or something like that) but no news since then. All we still had was this dusty old yellowed photograph taken in the late 1970’s. Blimey, I should have guessed he would reappear at a Van Der Graaf gig, he used to be a fan and, by the way, his favourite song was Killer.mp3. Of course. - S.

TASTING – TWO 1968 LONGMORNS BY THE SMWS

Longmorn 38 yo 1968/2006 (49.8%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 7.35)

Colour: mahogany. Nose: classical, typical sherry nose but maybe lacking a little oomph. Dry, a little cardboardy, not extremely expressive. Okay, that may sound a little severe, it’s really excellent whisky but we’d have liked a little more zing considering this one’s ‘pedigree’. Sure we have chocolate, coffee, gravy, soy sauce, raisins, coal smoke… But all that is a little shy.

Mouth: much better despite a slightly bitter rubberiness. We have old walnuts, bitter chocolate, bitter caramel, toasts… It gets (even) dryer with time and a little tannic (over-infused tea)… Right, if you like very dry sherry, this is for you, although the finish is a little sweeter (oranges drops)… A very good old Longmorn but I think it went a little over the hill in fact, and got too dry. But it’s still worth 85 points in my books.

Longmorn 35 yo 1968/2004 (51.7%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 7.25)

Colour: mahogany. Nose: extremely similar on the nose, maybe a tad less chocolaty but much meatier and a little more phenolic and resinous. Gets much nicer than the 38 yo after a while, with some beautiful organic notes emerging. Forest, mushrooms, smoke… Then litres of high-end balsamic vinegar, also sherry vinegar, dried morels, pure cocoa… Amazing how this one developed on the nose, whilst its bro stays much more restrained, even after a good twenty minutes. A matter of education, probably… Mouth: oh yes, it’s certainly better than the 38 yo on the palate. Sweeter, rounder but not less complex (yet compact), with lots of sultanas, crystallized oranges, baklavas, chocolate, apricots, toffee, café latte… Not the most brilliant sherry monster I’ve ever had but it’s perfectly palatable in its own genre. Nice medium-long finish, a little fresher and fruitier (prunes). Very, very good, like many old Longmorns (but still no absolute winner). 90 points.


April 28, 2007

CONCERT REVIEW by Nick Morgan
THE BAJOFONDO TANGO CLUB The Barbican, London, April 14th 2007

It’s hotter than Buenos Aires in London. There’s not a sardine to be had from the fishmonger’s as the west London air slowly fills with the choking scent of garage-rusted barbecues being torched into action for the first time this year. On the streets last season’s ill-fitting summer clothes are out on display along with an alarming surfeit of flesh, much of it an almost Dickensian tubercular off-white. The pre-gig pizza is pleasingly piquant. Inside the Barbican it’s hot and spicy too - excited Spanish chatter fills the foyer. It’s the second night of La Linea – the seventh London Latin Music Festival – two weeks of “new trends and moves in the world of Latin music”.

Just about to come on stage is Capitan Melao led by Stereophonics drummer Javier Weyler (an alliance that perhaps celebrates the 25,000 Welsh speaking Argentinians who live in the province of Chubut), who plays guitar and sings, supported by guitar, tapes and loops man Mariano Godov.

Capitan Melao

Opening song ‘Ser pos dos’ sets the tone – spacey overlays to a soft Latin beat and dreamy lyrics – not quite living up to the claim of “the seduction of Bossa nova, the pain of a Bolero, the anger of Rock”. It’s all in the same vein – some songs better than others – but does liven up a bit when Phil Manzanera (not just a Roxy Music axeman but also a leading producer and advocate of modern Latin American music) joins for some typically fuzzy lead guitar on ‘Terraplan’. Pablo Giménez provides some striking visuals in the background. Oh and there’s a new album (there always is), Lacrima, which you can buy direct from their myspace page.

It’s a pleasing interlude, but despite the enthusiasm of the audience it does little to deter from the sense of anticipation that fills the hall. You see we’re actually here to see the Bajofondo Tango Club – “the band that we were told Gotan Project was”, led by ageing Argentinian rocker and Oscar winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla (who plays the guitar and sings), responsible for film scores such as Babel, Motorcycle Diaries (from which he plays a really sweet solo guitar piece), Brokeback Mountain and Amores Perros.

Sitting next to us, in something of a fluster, are Maurice and Dot Thistlethwaite, leading lights of the Morecambe and Heysham Tango and Crown Green Bowling Association who’ve come all the way from the Lune peninsula on a coach (with their dancing shoes round their necks) under the misapprehension that it’s a dance night. But from the initial notes of Javier Casalla’s melancholy violin they, like the rest of the audience, are totally won over (actually its some sort of Stroh violin - with a horn and resonator - with a wonderful metallic scratchy sound). “Infectious pounding tango rhythms, almost hypnotic visuals from Vjay Veronica Loza” says my little black notebook after only ten minutes or so. And so the evening went on, and on, and on. Pretty good if you liked infectious pounding tango rhythms, but if not you were pretty stuck.

It’s a fine balance to strike between tradition and modernity – but although they were the engine room of the band, Juan Campodónico’s sequences and loops never dominated either Casalla’s playing, or the bandoneon of Martin Ferres (who also played a wonderful solo piece) – the instrument that possibly most defines the Tango sound. The battle between old and new was captured in a fine piece which saw Fernando Santullo rap and exchange lines with Santaolalla. And they tip their hats to the great exponents of their art both through the carefully chosen film and photographic sequences and samples from famous artists - whilst not being scared to raise contemporary issues in pieces such as Exodo II (where the visuals deal explicitly with the huge increase in emigration from Argentina in recent years spurred by the country’s faltering economy). Believe me there’s a lot going on – leaving the audience (even Maurice and Dot) transfixed before rising to their feet in rapturous applause at the end of each song. Did I mention there’s a lot of national pride on display here too?

“We don't like the label 'electronic tango' because we try to make a contemporary music of Rio de la Plata, music from Argentina, Uruguay” Santaolalla told the Guardian, "…in our case, it is kind of an active melancholy. There's also power, rawness - a savage element to tango we try to keep alive. That connects to some of the primal energy rock has." He’s not joking. When these boys really get going it gets close to the Alabama 3 playing ‘Mao Tse Tung’ (that scores about fifteen out of ten in the primal rock energy scale), and actually I regret that we’re not stuck in the sweaty Astoria enjoying this rather than the rather stuffy Barbican. Or so it seemed. Suddenly, without warning, the stage was filled with dancers from the audience as pianist Luciano Supervielle discarded his keyboard for turntables and scratched through the last few songs. The doughty Barbican stewards gave up the battle quickly. Everyone was on their feet, and the last I saw of Maurice he was swirling Dot round in the middle of the crowded stage, carnation clenched grimly between her teeth. Like them you should buy the eponymous album, and look out for the new one which formed much of the evening’s material, but be warned – good though it is the disc won’t really deliver, this is a passionate visceral experience to be savoured live, and in case you’re wondering it’s far more memorable than my piquant pizza. - Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate)

Muchias gracias, Nick. Nice to see that tango is the thing in the UK these days, maybe it’s a little more ‘infused’ in the common French culture, hence less noticeable as a specific musical entity, so to speak. But we do talk about the Gotan Project as well… Even if many purists (which I ain’t) are pinching their noses a bit whilst invoking Piazzolla, or even Gardel and claiming that these new bands are the Kenny G’s of tango. Agreed, that’s pretty harsh. By the way, was Manzanera really good? I remember ‘801 Live’ as if it was yesterday, that was a great record. I also seem to recall he was amongst the four guitar masters we had put on a pedestal at the time (Santana, Zappa, Manzanera, Keef). Okay, not Keef. But let’s have a little Bajofondo Tango Club now, with a piece called Perfume.mp3.

TASTING – TWO BRUICHLADDICHS

Bruichladdich 15 yo (43%, OB, mid 1990’s) Didn’t we almost forget that Bruichladdich was founded quite a few years before the current owners took over? Colour: gold. Nose: truly Brucihladdich, with lots of melons and fresh apricots right at first sniffs. Nicely fruity indeed but it gets then much grainier and even slightly soapy, the fruitiness having vanished. It’s also a little mashy, yeasty, even papery (wet newspaper) and very milky (lactones?) Really average.

Mouth: we have a little more caramel and cereals here but the whole is quite weak and papery again, kind of dusty and sugary at the same time, although we have nice notes of pine kernels. I think it’s an excellent evidence of the work done by the current owners in selecting casks and doing their vattings (just compare this old one with the new 15yo, even the recent finished version). Especially the finish is a little too dry and cardboardy… Below par even if certainly drinkable (but there were some excellent older 10yo’s). 76 points.

Bruichladdich 14 yo 1991/2006 (46%, Coopers Choice)

Colour: white wine. Nose: a little shier and more on fresh apples and pears, with unusual hints of olive oil, and then even black olives. Develops quite slowly, getting a little grassy and starting to smell almost like tequila or maybe white rum, getting then almost as mashy and slightly soapy as the old 15yo. But it’s got more freshness and is hence more pleasant. A good example of the much advertised ‘Atlantic freshness’ I guess. Mouth: more, much more body now, with a distinctive ‘coastality’ (I think I never got it that loud in a Bruichladich), hints of seashells, iodine… And we have these hints of olive oil as well, a little liquorice, chervil, sage… A very entertaining, with also a little quince and, maybe, melons. Finish: rather long, quite aromatic (hints of violets and lavender swets), with also a little wax. Another very pale and fresh one that should stand ice in summer. I like this: 84 points.


April 27, 2007

TASTING – FOUR BRAES OF GLENLIVET (no idea about the plural, sorry – OK, BRAEVALS)

Braeval 11 yo 1995/2006 (46%, Dun Bheagan, cask #95653, 750 bottles)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: archetypical mashy, yeasty, porridgy and fruity (apples and pears) young malt, developing on a little ginger, cinchona and white pepper. As natural (and maybe neutral) as it can get. Gets more peppery with time. Mouth: sweet, fruity (apple compote and juice), grainy and quite salty. Nothing too special but no flaws. Finish: medium length, a little sugary, mashy (potatoes, sweet corn)… Good natural whisky but no thrills. 76 points.

Braes of Glenlivet 16 yo 1979/1996 (59%, Signatory, sherry butt #16045)

All this series of 1979 Braes of Glenlivet by Signatory were really excellent, I hope this one won’t depart from the rules. Colour: brownish. Nose: big bold sherry of the meaty and chocolaty kind. Reminds me of that Mexican sauce (mole). Nice whiffs of metal (aluminium pan), fir wood smoke, rum, ham, gravy. Also remains of yeasty and feinty notes. Gets more vinous after a moment but rather beautifully so (clean old wine cask, wine cellar, moisture). We’re only missing the spider’s webs… What’s more, it’s easily nosable at such high strength. Mouth: a very impressive attack, coating, candied, salty and very raisiny. Perfect sherry, of the meaty and resinous kind again, with also notes of dried apricots, rancio and amaretto. Sure it’s a little hot but water seems to be superfluous. I beg your pardon? Okay, okay, let’s try (while the nose got even more ‘organic’): the salt is even more apparent but the general profile stays the same. No sulphur or rubber revealed whatsoever. Finish: long, still beautifully sherried and elegant, complex, meaty… Finishes on Corinth raisins. In short, another excellent cask from that series, worth searching for (just like, for instance the famous 1980 Fettercairns by the same bottler). 90 points.

Braes of Glenlivet 8 yo 1987/1995 (62.7%, Cadenhead)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: much more harsh, pungent, spirity… Close to raw alcohol. Quick, water: loads of vanilla and caramel but that’s pretty all. Now, I quite like vanilla and caramel. Mouth (neat): I’m sorry but ‘ouch!’ With water: very sugary. Nutshell: sugared alcohol. Not undrinkable, that is, but this is not why we’re into whisky. 65 points.

Braes of Glenlivet 17 yo 1989/2007 (55.9%, Cadenhead, 276 bottles)

This one comes from a Sauternes hogshead. Rather curious… Colour: full gold. Nose: very spirity, buttery and caramelised at first nosing, with whiffs of oak sawdust that grow bigger and bigger. Also hints of ginger and cinnamon but the whole is quite simple and raw. Something green in the background (newly cut grass). Not unpleasant but rough. Mouth: very sweet and kirschy, with notes of distillation. Quite some vanilla and milk chocolate but the rest is rather simple and almost neutral, except for hints of ripe apricots and plums, all that being slightly ‘vulgar here’. A hot, raw spirit. Finish: rather long, hot, like fruit spirit mixed with caramel and vanilla. A hipflask malt to warm you up in winter, quite oaky. 77 points.

MUSIC – Recommended listening: the ueber-fantastic Jeanne Lee sings Rain.mp3 in 1993 with David Eyges on cello. Let's all remember the great Jeanne Lee and buy her music.


April 26, 2007

TASTING – THREE YOUNG CLYNELISHES

Clynelish 9 yo 1997/2006 (46%, Coopers Choice)

Colour: pale white wine. Nose: this is extremely playful, very fruity (gooseberries, green apples, bananas) and slightly mineral and waxy as usual. Still quite simple but already nicely balanced, with a little pepper already starting to come through. Also quite some fresh butter and a faint yeastiness. Nose: a little less of plain fruit juice this time, starting much grassier and even a little bitter. It’s also unusually tarry, getting then mashy and slightly milky. Very natural – maybe a little neutral, actually. Good spirit but it would probably benefit from further ageing. Finish: rather long, fruitier again but very simple despite the notes of liquorice all-sorts. Not quite ‘Clynelish’ yet. 78 points.

Clynelish 11 yo 1994/2005 (46%, Murray McDavis, bourbon/viognier, 1800 bottles)

Murray McDavid go on with their wine encyclopaedia, this time it’s viognier, a white grape variety used mainly in the Rhone valley (here in Condrieu). Viognier is said not to age too well but when it’s young, it gives extremely classy whites, quite spicy and usually quite ‘round’ yet demonstrative. But viognier needs good terroir, otherwise it gets a little lumpish. Not in Condrieu, that is! Anyway, let’s try this whisky… Colour: amber. Nose: oh, this is very interesting, the casks seem to have given it kind of an old bottle effect. Really, it smells almost like a sherried whisky that spent at least twenty years in glass (if you’re a winemaker from Condrieu, watch your casks!) We have something slightly metallic, musty, nutty, farmy and animal (clean horse), with also hints of musk and Seville oranges. How interesting and ‘funny’! Too bad Condrieu is so small… Mouth: the effect is not quite as striking as on the nose but we’re well in the same ‘trend’. Quite concentrated, ‘old-sherried’, toasted, coffeeish, orangey, liquoricy, with this mustiness again (hints of wild mushrooms, pu-erh tea). Lots of spices as well (mostly cloves) and maybe just a slight dryness from the rather heavy oak that takes the lead after a moment. A great whisky to play dirty tricks to your friend (you know, ‘tell me what this is!’) Finish: rather long, candied and gingerier now, with Clynelish’s trademark waxiness as a signature. Surprisingly great, I’d say. 89 points.

Clynelish 1995/2007 (50%, Taste Still, Whisky Live Verviers 2007, 302 bottles) Colour: white wine. Nose: we’re closer to the 1997, obviously, but this one is much less fruity and quite sharper at first nosing – and it’s not only the alcohol, although it’s quite spirity. Quite grassy, mineral, with notes of paraffin and linseed oil. Maybe a little austere I’d say, but very clean. An interesting meatiness in the background (oxtail). And it gets hugely waxy after ten of fifteen minutes and quite farmier at the same time. Superb in fact, but it really needs a lot of time. Oh, and it gets also much smokier! (coal and wood). Mouth: powerful and much, much fruitier. We have strawberries and apples, litres of orange juice and ginger tonic (a good one) as well as something like peat, that I didn’t quite get on the nose. Wait a second, peat? Yes, really, peat – and did I already mention wax? Yes, rings a bell. We’ve had Broras from the 1980’s that had roughly the same profile. It gets more peppery after that, with also notes of curry and ‘that mix of spices that they use in North Africa to improve just any dishes’. Yeah, I know, that’s pretty useless comments if you haven’t been there but believe me, this Clynelish really tastes like that spice mix (‘for lazy cooks’ as they say over there). Anyway, it’s superb whisky – provided you give it a lot of time, which we don’t always do with youngsters like this one. A shame. Finish: long, with all the dimensions mingling now, fruits, phenols and spices. Just excellent but again, you have to give it time – yeah. It’s with its young whiskies that you can check a distillery’s class. 90 points.

MUSIC – Recommended listening: she sadly passed away in May 1990 at the age of 32 but Emily Remler managed to amaze crowds of jazz fans before she went to the stars. Let's listen to her playing the standard Softly as in a morning sunrise.mp3 - wasn't she good? Please buy her recordings...


April 25, 2007

TASTING – THREE LINKWOODS

Linkwood 25 yo (40%, G&M for Sestante, mid-1980's)

With its famous yellow brick label – don’t know if Elton’s a fan. Colour: gold. Nose: this is very nice. Very elegant, very honeyed and delicately toffeeish, with whiffs of wood smoke, liquorice and a little ‘good’ rubber, developing