Nose: Edgy and slightly grassy to start with mineral back notes. Quickly reveals light tropical fruits, pineapple, kiwi and a touch of overripe mango alongside refined linseed and lemon oil. There are some menthol qualities with paraffin, beeswax and dusty oak backed by a whisper of distant coal smoke. Becomes sweeter and more rounded over time with added lemongrass and ginger. Not quite so extrovert as many of the now classic 72’s but beautifully elegant.
Taste: The attack is all on the tropical fruits but with a more distinctly waxy, citrus leaning than the nose. The oily, mineral notes are still present with a little mint and menthol juniper alongside. Tannins are amazingly restrained but past the mid palette a little ginger and white pepper build into toasty oak.
Feel: Oily, rich but never cloying.
Finish: Long with the fruit returning in the shape of quite sweet, stewed lemon with paraffin wax, damp rocks and ginger. A little mint returns in the length.
A lovely old Caper that has been slow aged in what was clearly a rather inactive cask, a wonderful thing if you ask me. More fragile than a number of 72’s I have tasted but also perhaps more feminine, elegant and refined.
Thank you for the kind words :-). Yes in the sense that it is never so dense and viscous as to loose delicacy.
A very concise, coherent review @stu-r. When you say never 'cloying' do you mean never 'too rich'?