Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

330 ml bottle. Pours a chestnut color with light head and a lot of suspended sediment. Aromas of caramel, candi sugar, raisins and toasted malts. Flavors follow same. Sweet. Seems more like a quad than an English or American barley wine. Fairly good but the suspended stuff ruins the enjoyment .

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

The last tasting from an order at a Belgium retailer, I wanted it to be this 33 cl bottle of barley wine. Bottle is opened and I pour into a Delirium snifter. A dark caramel colored liquid with a modest skim of silvery tan foam. The smell is traditional and likewise good. I get ripe dark fruit, grain and cane syrup. I take a drink and will say this beer reminds me of as much a dark Belgian ale as a barley wine. I don't mind, I like that style as I like a good barley wine. Dark plums, dark biscuits, raisins, a curious small sour presence, a toffee sweetness, malt and some wood. A decent beer, better than anticipated.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

33 cl. bottle @ home, bought @ van Rooij, Culemborg. Brown with a light beige head. Malty caramel aroma with a little roast as well. Sweet taste with a sweet low bitter finish. Deceptively simple at first but develops with every sip.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bruin bier met schuim wat snel wegzakt. Smaak is zoet met iets van pruimen, wat rozijnen en wat rode wijn. Wordt na een paar slokken eigenlijk steeds beter.

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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

25th August 2022
Light haze on this deep amber beer, small pale tan head. Palate is light and semi dry, good fine minerally carbonation. Light malts, decent cream and caramel and a touch of toffee. Crisp pine. Crisp ripe fruits on the back end, tastes pretty bourbon barrelled. Crisp finish. Nice. Vivien always strike me a brewery that produces clean beers and this Barleywine is no exception. Tastes BBA though...

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

33cl bottle. A clear deep amber beer. Aroma of strong biscuit malt, ripe fruits and caramel. Taste of strong grainy malt, ripe fruits, slightly boozy.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 3.5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 3.5

Scharfer, alkoholisch getreidiger Beginn. Unausgewogen, etwas herb, monoton. Muss nicht sein. 10/7/6/6/8/7

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

English style barleywine as interpreted by Viven in West-Flanders, bottle from De Pickere in Zele - with quite a classy front label, I must add. Medium sized, irregularly but tightly lacing, pale greyish white, slowly breaking but generally stable head, misty deep and pure orangey amber robe with darker ruddy-brownish tinge and visible sparkling, turning into a murky caramel brown with sediment. Aroma of very Belgian-estery bubblegum and banana, candyfloss even, caramel candy, yellow raisins, cooked apple, freshly baked white bread crust, Madeleine cookies soaked in cognac, damp earth, molten or old and worn out rubber, pear juice, whisky, burnt sugar, tea, wet papier maché, outspoken (phenolic) clove, rotting tree leaves or even lettuce tucked away in the background. Sweet, fizzy onset: lots of tingling (over)carbonation, almost soda-like and definitely too much for the intended style, playing around with sweet notes of banana, cooked sweet apple, ripe pear and medlar, with a vague sourish undertone; smooth, bit vinous mouthfeel, but too carbonated and thinned by the alcohol that is to come. Malty middle phase, caramelly with bubblegummy edges and sweet-bready core, honeyish on top, but in the end a slight toasted-peanutty or indeed even toasted-bready bitterishness is added - and though it remains subtle, it makes up for a lot. Unfortunately, after the hops have briefly deposited a leafy bitter note nicely blending with this malt bitterish aspect, strong clove-like phenols set in - and then they too are obliterated by a near-burning, cheap brandy-like alcohol effect, heating the palate and throat and impairing drinkability. The banana ester (and bubblegum) effect sadly remain powerful till the last sip. Ambitious beer, but like most other barley wines in Anglo-Saxon vein ever made in Belgium, remaining stuck in the Belgian strong ale idiom, with a huge amount of bubblegum and clove-like spiciness that has absolutely nothing to do with true barley wine, on top of being crudely boozy. As such, this interpretation feels rather far-fetched, unbalanced, unconvincing and inauthentic - though I am sure the amateurs of Belgian style strong ales will possibly love it, also because of its booziness and rather harsh, numbing overcarbonation. Not a true barleywine even if they got at least the idea right, but none expected from this brewery either, so I will not be too harsh on it; still, I remain under the impression that the best Belgian barley wines are beers not intended to be 'genuine' barley wines at all (think of Dolle's Stille Nacht Speciaal Reserva editions, for example)...