5.9

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

500ml bottle from Westhill Service Station. It pours hazy muddy brown with a decent bubbly off - white head. The aroma is rather rich, oily, sappy wood, old leather sofa, toffee, quite intoxicating, boozey hit, candied citrus, stewed apple & pear, melon and gooseberry crumble. The taste is initially dry and toothy, woody and sappy, bitter - sweet character, estery fruits, pear, apple, melon, pear drops, plum crumble, light tannin, touch of Parma violets even, varnished wood, fruit cake and warming booze which leads to a drying finish. Fulsome body and light to moderate carbonation. It ain't a looker, it but is certainly pretty interesting stuff. As it warms it unfortunately gets a bit of a smoky vibe which I doubt was intended. A shame.