PADAUK

Named for padauk, the deep red West African hardwood that gives this bottle both its colour and much of its character. Sylva chars it, then works it alongside toasted red oak from its own Essex woodland, ex single malt white oak staves from Nc'nean, and roasted olivewood out of Italy. The base is distilled rye grain. After that the timber does the work, through a maturation process the lab calls sonic ageing, using oxygen, pressure, heat and ultrasound to pull flavour and colour out of wood in a fraction of the usual time. Gravity percolation moves the liquid through the chips. It drinks dark and unhurried. Chocolate cake, buttered wholegrain toast, stewed plum and green walnut, with butterscotch and roasted spice sitting underneath. Pour it neat over one big cube and treat it as an after dinner glass. 50cl at under 0.5% ABV, made on the Essex and Suffolk border in the grounds of a Benedictine monastery and mill.