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2013/01/20 02:02:48瀏覽315|回應0|推薦1 | |
Fuller’s Vintage Ale, 2012 vintage, 8.5%abv. (Old Ale/Barleywine) Bottle No.44359, purchased from the Fuller’s online shop; this year the ale is made with three types of hops: Goldings, Sovereign and Target, served cool in Hapkin’s tulip-shaped sniffer. 4/5 Appearance: pours a mahogany tea-ish colour, coming with moderate fizziness and a thin layer of off-white fluffy head. 4/5 Smell: the smell is full of aromatic fruits – ripe plums, fat white prunes, longan-fruits, dried apple slices, overripe guadalupe melon, cherry skins, marmalade, with a good, nectar-ish acidity to support a weighty and jammy caramel+honey-ish maltiness… A swirl brings up a perfumy esters, while the aroma of hops also comes to the fore, mainly Goldings and Target with their vivid marmalade-ish notes. Fantastically thick and rich, but the structure manifests clearly on the nose given a few swirls. 4.5/5 Taste: effervescent, sour-sweet plummy/pruney/marmalade-ish and estery on the foretaste, followed by a mild honey-ish malt sweetness with a vivid touch of yeasty bitterness, then quickly paving the way for a wave of woody, olive-skin like spicy bitterness laced with a touch of staleness to linger well into the subtly tannic, and eventually dry, finish. 4.5/5 Mouthfeel & 4.5/5 Drinkability: full-bodied, superbly balanced, as it is still young the hops lend a vivid impact to help retain the balance; alc. hides pretty well, but doesn’t go unnoticed as each sip is echoed by a remotely warming feel down the throat. I have not tried the 2011 version, but this vintage strikes me as a superior counterpart to Vintage 2010 and 2009 at least, that it is mature already being still a young beer. The subtly bitter and dry aftertaste lifts off the weight of this barley wine every so skilfully. I personally would expect this vintage to age well in a few more years to come, to show a drier aftertaste which is always welcomed for a high-octave liquidy feast. Highly recommended. --Yau (19/01/2013) |
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