Sponge Cake On The Wine Lake

SPIRIT NOTES

Sunshine glistened on the loch of Oloroso sherry as ripe apples and pears bobbed on raspberry ripple rafts. From the banks the smell of tobacco leaves merged with clay soil and walnut trees. We paddled across the loch, passing inlets of champagne and custard, aboard our sponge finger kayaks. After a dash of water we sailed past brioche pleasure boats and chocolate madeleine cruise ships, before arriving at a pistachio cake island criss-crossed by steams of orange liqueur. Needing a well-earned rest, we moored the kayaks and found a spot on the nectarine millefeuille beach to enjoy a few juicy plums, bananas and toasted almonds from our cedarwood lunchbox. After spending 27 years in an oloroso butt this was transferred to a first fill Pedro Ximénez butt for the remainder of its maturation.