Intensely fruity to start, with dark cherries, blackberries, and raspberry coulis; there’s also dark chocolate, maple syrup, leather book bindings, and oolong tea, set over a background of baking spice. With water, brown sugar creeps in at the outer edges. Remarkable complexity on the palate: cooked dark fruit, dark chocolate ganache, tea leaf, roasted pecans, maple syrup, licorice, tobacco, and well-integrated spice. The flavor array is seemingly endless, and carries well into a lengthy, warming finish.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Winter 2020)