Marula Gin Limited Edition Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish

Marula already tastes faintly of nuts, and oloroso brings nuts of its own. Pairing the two doubles a character rather than contrasting with it, which is the opposite of what a cask finish usually sets out to do, and that is why this fifth-anniversary bottling holds together. Marula Gin rests the spirit for several months in casks that held the Andalusian wine, at 40%.

Woody · Limited Edition · Fruity

Oloroso is oxidised deliberately for years before the cask is emptied, and what it leaves behind is dried fruit and a warm nuttiness rather than the vanilla of fresh oak. The marula meets it halfway.

On the nose the fruit arrives first, soft and recognisably itself, and the cask adds hazelnut, dried fruit and a light woody touch behind it without covering anything.

The palate opens round and silky, and the sequence is the interesting part: the marula shows its liveliness first, then folds into hazelnut, cocoa and raisin, the three notes an oloroso caskSherry caskA cask that once held sherry, the fortified wine of Andalusia. Dry, oxidative oloroso brings nutty, dried-fruit notes; Pedro Ximénez brings raisin and molasses.Glossary always gives. By the time the finish arrives the two halves are no longer separable. Long and persistent, warm without heat, and gourmet in the sense of being genuinely rich rather than sweet.

None of this belongs in a long glass. Neat, or over one large ice cubeLarge iceOne large block melts far more slowly than several small cubes, so the drink stays cold without watering down.Glossary, is what the producer intends and what the recipe supports; the cask work is the point and tonic thins it immediately. Give it a few minutes to open. No garnish is needed, and a toasted nut on the side does more than anything in the glass would. An anniversary bottling is usually a label exercise. This one changed the liquid, and it did so in the direction the base spirit was already pointing rather than against it, which is why the cask reads as a continuation instead of a correction. It ends nutty, fruity and warm.