Bottle @ RBSG Grand Tasting. Pours a murky orangish brown appearance with little head. Slightly tannic, red grape, vinous, brown sugar aroma. Twangy, somewhat tart, oxidized, papery, caramel, plum flavor. Eh.

Cask at Barcade - I was hoping that the wood aging would mellow the hoppiness of this beer, and I was not disappointed - however, instead of mellowing the brashness of the original beer, and adding a subtle, wine-like character, what seems to have resulted is a kind of sweet, woody, bourbon.booziness - the merlot character is there, but the agressive nature of the beer is too much for it - I was hoping for a BA Leviathan result (a subpar beer becomes amazing after barrel aging), but instead we have a sub par beer becoming an entirely new kind of sub par beer - oh well, I gotta hand it to them for trying.