Xenophon's Wine
(has 2 batches)

33cl bottle (bottled 14/02/2020, BBF: 12/02/2025) from Etre Gourmet web shop. F: thin, tan to tanned, quick diminishing to thin film. C: dark brown with red hue against the light. A: rich malty, mellow fruity, bit vinous, bit spicy, red apples peels, nutty, caramel. T: full malty base, caramel, burned sugar, candy sugar, dried fruits, spicy, bit bready, vinous, leaves, soft carbonation, quite nice, fully enjoyed.

Interesting beer... Will give it some more time... don't drink too cold.

American style barleywine aged on bourbon barrels, first developed in 2009 in collaboration with Pipeworks (one of the leading craft breweries in Chicago, a city teeming with small breweries); apparently this original edition escaped my attention at the time, but now Struise treats us with this 'reprise' dubbed Vintage 2019, with slightly altered recipe at a lower ABV (9.5% instead of the original 11%). From a 33 cl bottle with crown cap, bought from Etre Gourmet. Medium thick, creamy, dense, pale yellow-beige, regular head, leaving behind a creamy, continuous membrane of lacing and slowly showing gaps and opening further after that until completely gone, over a misty, deep mahogany brown beer with bright copper red glow. Aroma of butterscotch, cookie dough, candied orange peel, dry prunes, coffee cream, hard caramel, cognac or indeed sweet bourbon, praliné, cinnamon rolls, toasted brown bread, old brownies, vanilla from the oak wood, hints of stewed plums, burnt brown sugar, bay leaf, nutmeg, dried blueberries, brown honey, milk powder, red apple peel, medlar. Sweetish onset with a dash of dark candi sugar but nothing cloying at all, balanced by a sourish undercurrent reminiscent of blueberries or elderberries, hints of medlar and fig, softly carbonated with a thick, full, smooth, vinous mouthfeel. Supple caramelly maltiness but without much actual caramel sweetness, brown-bready and increasingly toasty-bitterish, until even a slight hint of coffee bitterness almost appears - while dried fruit notes linger and this quite outspoken, seemingly lightly lactic sourish undertone continues, accentuating the vinous character of the whole, almost as if part of it was aged on red wine barrels too. Bittering finish, leafy hoppiness for sure, a tad rooty even and connecting with the toasted bitter aspect of the malts; pronounced tannic woodiness meanwhile pushes up retronasal 'oaky vanilla', but in a faded, dim way. Long and evidently bourbon-like alcohol heat at the back, a tad astringent, which accentuates both the woodiness and that sourish undertone, while the bitter aspect lingers alongside traces of caramelly malt sweetishness and 'dry fruitiness'. Malt bitter just as well as hop bitter, a 'dark' barleywine so to speak, but if I would have tasted this blind, I would rather gamble on Scotch as the intended style. Too bad I never had the original version so I am unable to compare; this one in any case is a distinct beer for sure, combining sweetness (which altogether remains fairly subdued for a barleywine) with quite pronounced bitterness and - unexpectedly - an almost equally pronounced sourish aspect. Not bad, but different from what I was expecting, it had to grow on me a bit, and I am left wondering if the different flavours actually match well enough the way they should; interesting beer for sure, but not the most impressive creation by this highly influential brewery I had to date.

Bottle. Murky brown color. Vinous aroma with raspberry and strawberry. Alcoholic, oaky flavor with hints of sherry. Loads of oily, earthy hops. Abrupt transition between the fruity and vinous aroma and the harsh oily and earthy hopflavor. Will this marriage improve with cellaring? Time will tell...

Bottle at Craig’s. Pours hazy brown, bitter lemon, sweet chocolate, cardboard.

Bottle at Craig’s. Pours hazy brown with swiftly vanishing off-white head. Aromas of sherry and citrus, some sweet caramel. Taste has more of the same, big bitterness. Good.