This barrique bestowed the mystique of Hemingway’s Spain – bodegas and tapas bars, sherry, dried figs, dates and membrillo, tobacco and polished wood. The unreduced palate was bold, intense and complex, ranging from the sweetness of maple candies, chocolate-dipped churros and fig jam to savoury and spicy notes (barbecued pork, mulled wine and cinnamon pastries). Adding water took the nose to a cooperage (leather aprons, hammers and wine-soaked oak) by the sea, where the workers were eating stuffed vine leaves and smoking cheroots. Water accentuated the fruitiness on the palate – dark plums, toffee apples, raspberry-coconut chocolate bars and fruit leathers.