Smoke, soot, sea spray and salty coastal sherry were the comments fired like a shot. We enjoyed gambas a la plancha in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the king prawns are caught straight from the gulf of Cadiz and grilled to become carabineros (scarlet prawns). A glass of manzanilla sherry with the meal and it was a marriage made in heaven.

After we added a drop of water the aroma was of a beach at low tide with drying rocks on the seashore as we now enjoyed a chargrilled tuna steak accompanied by a warm coriander and caper vinaigrette. Following 10 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a refill Spanish oak sherry hogshead.