有時候想想，不是隨便哪一款酒都適合丟到威士忌或其它烈酒舊木桶裡熟成加持的… 要看看基酒的風味、基本調性與體質。風味很弱或主題挺不明顯的酒，在與威士忌舊木桶交匯後，常常會迷失了自我，變成木桶監獄裡的犧牲品；風味定位明顯或體質強勁的酒，則選桶時要聰明，或至少謹慎，別找了個酒味木味太過柔順且極為衰老的木桶，反而關了半天，感化不成功反而被酒桶中其它的影響源害得丟了半條命…

以下便是個木桶監獄裡感化不成、反被整得沒氣的麥酒老大：一款前蘇格蘭啤酒廠Bridge of Allan首席釀酒師 (目前BOA已經與Traditional Scottish Ales酒廠合併) 釀的桶陳麥酒，以威士忌用麥芽釀造、且經Tullibardine單一麥芽舊酒桶熟成。

想一想，最新一款 Fuller’s Brewer’s Reserve No.4 Oak-Aged Ale 靜坐Old Comte de Lauvia Armanac (VSOP)白蘭地廟堂365天，也是沒受甚麼天堂般加持，反而舊木桶裡的酸靈竄進基酒的身體裡，增加了些許『奇妙莫名』的複雜感、擺脫不去了 (喜不喜歡，就見仁見智了… 個人筆記供參考)！

Tullibardine Distillery – Bridge of Allan (Collaboration), 1488 Premium Whisky Beer, 7%abv. (Whisky Cask-aged Ale)

Coming in a 500ml dark brown bottle, with a “very whisky”-like beer label; this ale is in fact brewed by the head brewer of “Bridge of Allan” at the Tullibardine distillery, then the beer is oak-aged in Tullibardine’s old single malt whisky casks (by batches). I guess this is why it comes so expensive… BB 22/09/2009, served cool – not the suggested “best drunk cold”(??!!) – in Hapkin’s tulip-shaped bowl sniffer.

3.5/5 Appearance: pours a dark (reddish) amber hue with 100% clarity, sporadic vertical streams of light fizziness and a fast-dissipating off-white foamy head. Looking quite… filtered.

3.5/5 Smell: contrary to my expectation, the nose doesn’t give assertive hints of oakiness as in a Highland malt whisky; rather, the aroma is intensely overripe-fruity and semi-syrupy malty actually not unlike a proper English Barley wine (a bit like Fuller’s Golden Pride) – mild toffee, jammy plum preserve, sweet marmalade, sultanas, a touch of almond-nuts or the like… All these are fine, but where is the “Tullibardine” signature? As the beer label gives precious little about what kind of casks are used to mature this ale, for how long, and what ingredients are included in making the ale base, there’s no telling what one could expect apart from the image of a lightly peaty yet also highly honey-ish note of a highland single malt, which the aroma here has certainly failed to reflect. That said, a faint whiff of lightly almondy/nutty sweet oakiness hides behind as a remote reminder of (any) whisky cask (at all), while a good swirl also rings a bell of clean honey-ish malts and an indispensable alcoholic feel – but only just.

3.5/5 Taste: like a barley wine or even a well-aged bock bier, the foretaste comes with lots of preserved fruits (fat pale prunes, white cherries, licorice-flavoured prunes, and tangerine-flavoured candy), with barley-candy-ish & biscuity malts lagging behind; then, quietly and seamlessly, a well-aged semi-dry sherry-like aftertaste of non-sweet raisiny fruits hand in hand with herbally-sweet oakiness takes over the theme, before a bit more sour elements of residual fruitiness lingers amidst the sweet-woody finish. All’s fine for a smooth, super-lightly hopped strong ale – but where are the “whisky bits”? Comparing my notes with some other earlier reviews, what is missing here is certainly any smoky/peaty element – I wonder why? (Is it that I’m “overly” used to peaty whiskies that I drink so often??... don’t think so.)

3.5/5 Mouthfeel & 2.5/5 Overall: I can now imagine why the label recommends a cold serving for this ale, as the lack of complexity and certainly underperformance of whisky-cask ageing can be camouflaged as clean and even “integrated”, which I don’t find to be the case at around 12 centigrade anyway. In fact, the nearly non-existence of alc. might be a plus for the drinkability, as is the medium-minus body, a lightly carbonated texture, and an approachable flavour profile. But considering that this is self-acclaimed as a premium whisky ale aged in a famous distillery’s casks, the lack of these “legendary” elements in the overall mixture is less than satisfying, to say the least. To be bold, I have to say I simply can’t see the value for money (around 4 quid for a filtered and possibly pasteurised bottle!) that could be justified by excessive self-serving advertising!

--Yau (tasted 05/05/2009, notes transcribed 30/03/2013)