Tough time drinking this one . Tastes like an old homebrew left out in the sun. Bruge bottle shop

One of - to my knowledge - at least two barrel aged versions of Goliath Blonde, present on this site under its original name Gouyasse Tradition, aged for half a year on red wine barrels (Pinot Noir wine to be more precise). Comes from the same kind of elegant, olive oil-ish Italian style bottles as the barrel aged Quintine variations we were treated to last year. Slight gushing so be careful when opening. Thick but regular, moussy, egg-white, dense and pillowy head resting on a hazy pale apricot blonde beer with pale orangey tinge. Somewhat weird, perfumey and quite expressive aroma of candied pineapple, sweet dessert wine, lemon orchard, ripe blood orange, kefir lime leaf somewhere, peppermint, fried red apple, sweet white grapes, white port, vanilla from the oak wood, jasmine rice, sugared rhubarb stew, bath foam, lilac blossoms, passionfruit hint, Turkish delight, sugar loaf, warm biscuit cake, grass. Sweetish, expressively fruity onset, passionfruit piercing through cooked apple, ripe pear, banana, pineapple and some orange, softish carb, supple and softish body, feeling a bit lighter than its ABV would suggest; smooth white-bready, bit soapy, slightly biscuity middle, very 'fluffy', with this ripe fruitiness continuing and becoming more and more grapey, until an effect of sweet dessert wine or Greek muscat comes through - with a slight sourish, gooseberry-like edge to it, as is so often the case in wine barrel aged beers. Something outspokenly soapy holds strong in the finish - the classic coriander seed overdosis in the base beer I assume - but there are slightly wry woody tannins as well, and a vaguely warming, port-like glow. Grassy hop notes pop up here and there too, but it is the grapes, eventually indeed leading to an outspoken wine flavour, and the coriander soapiness that get the last word here. I have to admit that I liked the Quintine Vintage editions more than this one - but having said that, this is still an interesting experiment, with the wine barrel factor played out more strongly than I was expecting. The soapy, somewhat metallic, bland character of the Gouyasse Tradition / Goliath Blonde is in any case 'refined' and improved to something worth tasting, though it cannot hide its original character completely and the coriander and metallic aspect did bother me a bit. As a whole: the flavours need to intertwine a bit more, they are still clashing a bit too much, but this is certainly interesting, with probably some potential to improve over the coming months if cellared properly. I guess pulling out the Pinot Noir barrels and throwing in your bland blonde is one way to elaborate on the eternal blonde and tripel theme in Belgium - a vast and often rather monotonous family of stereotypical blonde ales which can only become more interesting to the more advanced beer taster if things like this come into play. Have a point for originality.