Bottle. 2004 Vintage. Hazy rich amber beer with a tiny off-white head. Sweet, brown sugar and malt aroma with some raisin fruitiness. Sweet malt with toffee flavor with fruitiness. Port comes through with a bit of oak. Very sticky. Sweetness lingers and fades to a nic rish port flavor. Nice complexity. Very good. Alcohol there but in background.

Bottle Poured a slightly hazy deep amber with a small head and only slight lacing. Similar heavy deep malty sweetness as its other Harves brethren. Lots of brown sugar and caramel sweetness and a nice alcohol warming feel that make you want to just sip it. Thanks to Chad for this one.

2003 vintage. Pours with no head, the color is the most brown and clear of the series, like a cognac. However, its the most clear barely wine out of the Lees series. The aroma is very tame for a barely wine, like a regular Harvest Ale but much more muted. The taste is also tame, not overpowering like most barely wines and especially the Lee’s. There is a small hint of port in the finish but mainly barely wine. Even though this beer is about 3 years old , I do no think that time has aged it but that is was always this tame.

2003 vintage consumed in 2010, so about 7 years old. No port aspect whatsoever, just the Lees barleywine, which is sweet as usual with no sign of age on it. Sweet, filtered and not oxidized yet, with no hint of barrel,

2003 bottle sampled in 2005. Paid $7.75 for a 9.3 oz single. Pours orange amber with only a dusting of a white head, very pretty color. Aroma is sweet, not strong, and reminds me a bit of a cherry cordial, complete with the chocolate in hand. Flavor is... hmmm... definitely barleywine, but finishes with a bitter tangy alcohol flavor with some grassiness, metal, and cherrylike sweetness. It’s got some stickiness in it. Definitely enjoyable, but not worth the price.

An amber beer with no head. The aroma is domintated by alcohol, but also with notes of peach and spices. The flavor is extremely sweet and very malty as well as lots of caramel, but there is surprisingly no Port present.

Copper to strawberry blonde in color, with a heavy nose of syrup, caramel and a hint of the port - thick mouthfeel feels slick on the tongue - lots of cherry and strawberry - caramel and an alcohol burn that is pleasant, not overwhelming - I don’t sense much of an impact on the flavor from the port barrel aging - there is a slight vinous character, but it is far in the background, and I would hardly call it port-like in quality - grapes and slight bitterness in the finish - overall quite nice, but not as good as regular old JW Lees.