Bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck. Wallonian barleywine hopped "the new way" and aged on Macvin barrels (a sweet dessert wine from the Jura region in France) - interesting concept. Thickly ’membranous’ lacing, dense and moussy, off-white head with firm ’edge retention’ and partial retention in the middle, crowning an initially clear, warm amber coloured beer with golden orange hue, turning equally misty and deeper copper-tinged with sediment. Rich and quite idiosyncratic bouquet of candied orange, dried banana, fermenting limes, grapefruit blossom, rambutan, granadilla, overripe Cantaloupe, green olive, dill, biscuit, sweet white grapes, fresh peaches, sweet cashew nuts, vanilla-ish wet oak, calvados, strawberry liqueur, nougat, chicken spices, cognac with oranges, subtle hint of fried egg-like proteins hidden somewhere, becoming expectedly stronger and ’beefier’ after the sediment is added. Strong and condensed candied orange sweetness in the onset matched with hints of mango, banana, ripe pear and pineapple, red berry sourish balance but sweetness prevails, thin umami edge underneath, very vinous, thick and oily body with softish carbo just about right for a beer labelled as a barleywine; meanwhile a thin, very subtle lime-like sourish accent runs underneath. Thick caramelly and honeyish malt sweetness glides over the tongue leaving behind a trace of white candi sugar and orange liqueur sweetness, before a gently tannic finish brings some dryness, accompanied by lovely vanilla-like oak accents and the orangey effects of the New World hops only accentuate the orange candy effect of the main flavor; they provide a lot of aroma but only a soft, lightly spicy bitterish touch in the end. Evidently, a glow of literally heart-warming, very Grand Marnier- or even cognac-like alcohol dominates the end, but in a gentle, refined, liqueurish and non-astringent way; I even get an actual flavor of sweet dessert wine all the way at the back. This is something else: I expected more hop bitterness, but actually the hops only serve here as an aromatic ingredient in a lush and thick whole that is perhaps best described as the beery equivalent of sweet orange liqueur. In general terms a sweet English style barleywine and a very credible one at that, deeply situated in internationalism, with very little echoes of the 20th century Belgian ale standards. Highly impressed and a highly recommended sweet dessert sipper of international class and greatness, I am very pleasantly surprised that Bastogne - which has already produced some very interesting things - is capable of achieving this high standard. A masterpiece of new Belgian micro brewing culture.

--- Beer merged from original tick of Ardenne Wood My Deer 2015 Macvin Barrels on 25 May 2016 at 21:01 - Score: 8

Dark amber colour, white foam. Sweet nose of tropical fruit, malty, caramel, toffee. Sweet and thick alcoholic. Very nice sipper. Good barley wine!