Bottle. Color: Dark copper, beige head. Aroma: Malty, caramel, dark dried fruit. Taste: Malty, raisins, dark dried fruit, caramel malt. Light to moderate hopbitterness. Boozy hints. Hints of almond. Moderate to over moderate bitterness. Hints of chocolate. Over medium body, below average carbonation. Nice dry-ish bittery and fruity finish.

When I thought about the Spanish trappist monks producing a third beer after a tripel and a dubbel, I thought it was going to be an 'enkel', so a standard Belgian style blonde (nowadays) - but here we are, they opted for a quadrupel instead, so in a family containing things like Westvleteren 12, Rochefort 10 and Chimay Grande Réserve, I guess the stakes are high. Thick and frothy, tightly 'Brugse kant'-like lacing, densely pillowy, pale yellowish-beige, regular and stable head heavily resting on an initially clear, deep bronze-mahogany brown beer with ruddy hue and some disparate sparkling, misty and deeper chestnut brown with sediment. Aroma of candi sugar rocks, caramel sauce, ripe Doyenné pear, candied dates, raisin bread, dry cookies, clove, brandy, hints of dried rosemary, fresh fig, gingerbread, some dry earth and hay and a vague background touch of iron. Sweet onset, clear candi sugar, even a tad cloying but adorned with lively fruity notes of fig, pear and some banana, with a slight sourish edge and moderately strong carb; full, rounded, smooth, 'fluffy' body. Brown-bready and caramelly malt middle with toffeeish and somewhat pecan-nutty edges, carrying the 'dark' fruity notes and candi sugar alongside clove-like spicy phenols (though well-measured) to a warming, fruity and malty finish in which a toasty accent shows up, pairing with a leafy hop bitter accent that coats the back of the tongue without overpowering the sweetness too much. Something metallic, already detectable in the nose, unfortunately appears in the end as well - probably head stabilizer or something, but in any case subtly disturbing an otherwise harmonious whole. Brandy-like warming alcohol ensues, with a feeling of figs soaked in cognac remaining behind. Still very young (this beer only hit the market a month or so ago) and with room for improvement, I have to admit that in comparison with the first batches of both their tripel and dubbel, this hits the sweet spot remarkably well: granted, the tripel and dubbel have considerably improved since then (note to self: must re-rate both), but it took them quite a while for that to happen. If this one, on the other hand, is already at this level of quality, then who knows what a mighty quadrupel this may one day become. Not far behind e.g. Zundert 10 or even Gregorius as far as I am concerned, very classical in its make-up but we all love a good Belgo-Dutch style quad I guess, and this certainly is a good one, better than expected even - but that metallic accent has to go, that much is clear.