[275ml bottle from Tuckers Maltings, Newton Abbot] Labelled as Edwin Tuckers Empress Russian Porter (2006 Vintage) - one of just 2,012 bottles produced. Pours thick black with a moderate, slowly diminishing brown head. Looks incredibly gassy on pouring, but no evidence of fizz when tasting - this is very smooth indeed. Huge aroma of roasted malt, backed up with blackcurrant, liquorice and cough mixture. On first taste - phew, does the alcohol hit you. This is strong, and likes to show it. The alcohol burn reminded me of Rochefort 10, but unlike Rochefort 10 where the alcohol kills off the flavours to a certain extent here it somehow enhances them. The taste therefore is initially of more heavily roasted malt - there’s some peaty smoke in there, lots of blackberry fruit, black coffee, red wine and some totally unexpected English hop flavours of straw, farmyard and earth. The finish has some dry, smoke-and-straw bitterness, which takes just enough of the edge off of the thick texture and alcohol burn, yet manages to leave you with a relaxed, contented, happy glow. Somehow the brewers have managed to not only balance sweetness and bitterness perfectly; they’ve also managed to balance an incredibly aggressive start against a happy relaxed finish - a fantastic effort, and the more I drank the more I appreciated it! Think my mark may have been even higher with a larger bottle, but equally I may well have fallen over too! I’d heartily recommend this for sipping slowly whilst relaxing late into a winter evening. Cheers!