Full maturity and abundance of character is immediately evident on the nose. Dried apricots buoyant in custard, lemon cheesecake, ripe orchard fruits, a multitude of elegant and supple waxes, fermenting cider apples, expensive sultanas and some wonderfully buttery cereals. A little drop of water and out comes coconut milk, dried thyme, lamp oil, paraffin, toasted pine nuts, banana bread and a medical swab of gauze.

It arrives on the palate with a pristine, all-encompassing waxy swoosh. Notes of furniture polish, dried wild flowers, toasted rye bread, camphor, old wine cellar, manuka honey, long-aged Sauternes and a delicate backbone of wood spice. Water dredges up tropical fruits such as pineapple jelly beans, aged mead, old workshops, hardwood resins, boot polish and ancient yellow Chartreuse. Magnificent.