[8/13] Tap at the Park Hotel. Lovely clear brown with a beige head. Far too cold even though I avoided the frosty glass. Much more enjoyable after it sat for 20 minutes. Aroma of light dough, stewed and dried fruit - prunes, raisins - brown sugar, mace. Full bodied but not at all syrupy. Really quite hot and very boozy. Sweet, faintly rummy. Explosive fruity flavours. Dries out a fair bit at the end. Punchy spices - aniseed, pepper, nutmeg. Lots going for it but the alcohol is way too prominent for me. I suppose this was always going to be a bumpy ride. [8 4 7 2 = 3.5][8/16] Bottle that didn’t explode at all. Clear dark brown with a beige head that sticks around as a coat. Somewhat shy aroma of raisins, spices, dark sugars, light dough, spices - coriander seed, mace, licorice, some ginger. Medium to full bodied. Fairly sweet with more dried fruit than bread or dark sugars. Bitterness is discreet but creeps up to handle the sweetness. A gentle array of spices. Alcohol is actually pretty well hidden, but the "explosive" fruit flavours (which I recall as akin to Rochefort 10 albeit with a blast of booze) are concomitantly less so. Getting there. [3.7]