Bottle. Aroma of raisin, caramelised malt, ripe fruit and vanilla. Taste has sweet raisin, vanilla, ripe fruit and caramelised malt and some herbs.

The new embodiment of the former Emelisse Barley Wine after Slot Oostende took over (i.e. after the departure of Kees Bubberman), at 2% ABV more than the original version, with clearly different recipe and new label. Bottle from Wijnegemse Drankenhal. Medium thick, ’membranously’ lacing, pale greyish white head, retaining as a firm moussy rim around the edge but dissolving in the middle, leaving only a few flat islands of off-white foam; initially clear, deep and warm, almost ’autumny’ bronze colour with copper red hue, dark but completely translucent; turns misty with sediment but the overall colour remains the same. Interesting and strong aroma of candied cherries and figs, overripe strawberries and strawberry wine, hazelnut paste, hot caramel sauce, blueberry ice cream, toffee apple (with an emphasis on toffee), pear brandy, kahlua, brown sugar melting on a hot pancake, ruby port, hints of sweet paprika, liquorish candy, maple syrup, fresh paint, cherry tree resin, ketchup, pink peppercorns, violets, dried ginger, fresh wet leather, earth (especially with sediment) and a background hint of iron. Candied sweet onset but not cloyingly so, lots of sugared cherry and candied fig flavours, some ripe blue plum (sweetish and sourish) hidden beneath, in a softly carbonated environment with more or less vinous, slick and bit glueish mouthfeel, very full, as can be expected from a 12% ABV beer. The candied sweetness, in a restrained but very pointed kind of way, carries on over a resiny middle, filled to the brim with caramelly and nutty malt sweetness with a very gently bittering toasted accent to it as well as a wafer-thin metallic edge somewhere; soft raisin bread and a dash of toast adorned with these candied cherries adorn the middle phase. Relieving dryness comes in the end, when a deeply situated, leafy, mildly spicy hop bitter accent opposes to the overall sweetness - but the resinous effect remains even after swallowing, and even after a considerable amount of warming, port- and brown rum-like alcohol has passed by, turning a tad wry on the root of the tongue - as usual with any 10+% beer, I reckon. Ends dry and boozy, with still this resiny, caramelly and candied cherry-ish sweetness overseeing it all. A tad too boozy for my personal taste - I hate the wryness of ’raw’ alcohol sticking to the root of my tongue - but other than that, a full-fledged barley wine the English way, sweet, ’deep’ and warming. A difficult style to bring to perfection and this one needs a bit more refinement and complexity, but it surely is a pleasant sipper, meeting the expectations the ’postmodern’ craft beer afficionado has when reading ’barley wine’ on the label. As for its evolutionary relationship to the old one: this is clearly another beer from what I remember, sweeter (I assume the added glucose - or dextrose as a brewer would normally call it - honestly mentioned on the label may have something to do with this even though it is very easily fermentable), stronger (by 2%), more ’clean’ and more resinous, and perhaps a tad less spicy. I came to understand that Slot Oostende, the current owner of the Emelisse brand, has the intention to maintain some of the classic Emelisse beers and add some new ones (which they already did meanwhile) - Kees was kind enough to leave his recipes behind - but I’m still not entirely convinced about this new rendition of the old ’classic’. Time will tell I guess, but I would recommend to taste an old one next to this new version for close comparison, if given the opportunity. This bottle was in any case too young to begin with - I reckon a couple of years of ageing could shave off some of the alcohol astringency as well as give the yeast some time to eat some of the residual sugars, which may result in something altogether great after all. For now: passable and true to style, but a bit over the top in alcohol and sweetness.