Bottle. Dark brown color. Oak, sherry and vanilla and tobacco in the aroma. Malty sweet, caramel, wood, tobacco, cinnamon and sherry in the flavor. Speculaas. Fairly complex, not at all flawless But likeable.

0.33 l bottle from 'Ace Drinks', best before August 2023. Almost clear, very dark ruby with a thin, frothy, almost stable, off-white head. Sweetish, gently yeasty-spicy, slightly fruity and a little vinous aroma of caramel, raisins, prunes, vanilla, molasses and some oak. Very sweet, malty, gently fruity, slightly vinous taste of caramel, molasses, raisins, cherry, vanilla, light Sherry and a touch of oak, followed by a medium long, moderately bitter, slightly vinous, gently warming and a bit yeasty-spicy finish. Medium to full body, slightly effervescent mouthfeel, soft to average. Quite a pleasant 'beer' (according to the list of ingredients it's wine and sherry infused), nicely warming and intense, but also a bit one-dimensional, not as complex as it could be.

After ancient family brewery Bosteels in Buggenhout was taken over by AB InBev in 2016, a few experiments have been done in an attempt to expand the genre beyond the old familiar names of Kwak, DeuS and Tripel Karmeliet, one of them being a barleywine-like ale dubbed BBB01 - produced and sold very limitedly, through AB InBev's own (also since 2016) web channel Saveur Bière and others; I suspect this new brand, coming with its own unusual glass (a bit of a trademark of Bosteels - see not just Kwak and Karmeliet but also 't Zelfde, discontinued by Bosteels when it was still independent), is loosely based on that first try and attempts to put Bosteels in a sort of niche market of special 'bières de dégustation' competing with the vast world of craft breweries. This Monte Cristo, not only coming with its own glass but also a specially shaped, almost port- or sherry-like bottle (the price has to be justified somewhere), has allegedly matured for eleven weeks on oak and sherry... Let's find out. Quite thick, regularly shaped, pale yellowish beige, irregularly lacing and slowly 'breaking' but generally stable head on a crystal clear, deep burgundy-bronze beer with ruby red glow and strings of sparkling here and there. Aroma of caramel candy, vanilla, sweet sherry note indeed but actually more reminiscent of white port or young madera, hazelnut oil, brandy, coriander seed, wood glue, touch of methylated spirits, fig jam, cherry pie, Parfait Amour, French blackberry syrup as used in soda, melting brown sugar on a hot waffle, but also background notes of brown soap, cotton cloth, stewed and sugared red cabbage and that typical 'cooked to death' smell of pasteurization (though admittedly this aspect stays well hidden here under all those other aromas). Emphatically sweet onset, candy-ish in a sugary, non-estery, somewhat simple way - brown sugar over pan-fried pear at most, with that blackberry syrup or even grenadine effect sticking to tongue and teeth; carbonation remains soft, mouthfeel is smooth and full, clearly 'pumped up' with malt-replacing sugars - as is custom in strong Belgian ales. Very caramelly core, resinous, with that sugariness annoyingly cloying, while the added flavours come up: a strong vanilla presence and indeed a whiff of - again sweet - sherry which again reminds me more of white port than actual sherry; I do sense a slight woodiness in the end, but no 'clear' oaky tannins. Hoppiness also remains all but completely hidden, so that the sugary sweetness and the alcohol, in this form very warming if not heating and very liqueurish, are given free rein. A clove-like to even slightly meaty presence of 4-vinyl-guaiacol lingers retronasally (and briefly reminds me of e.g. Leffe Radieuse and the like...). Remains altogether clean and simple in its core, even with flavourings added; I have no idea how this was made, but it certainly has never seen a wooden barrel and the sherry effect is quite superficial - I am wondering if there is such a thing as industrial sherry extract, because that is almost what seems to be in this beer. Packed with flavour, but in an artificial and simplistic way, this is clearly an attempt to overwhelm the consumer - but on those that are used to drinking flavoured and barrel aged strong stouts, barleywines and quadrupels all the time like myself, this industrial construction does not make such a big impression. Granted, it does contain a lot of flavour and in that sense it is certainly surprising seen where it comes from, but it cannot completely hide its industrially assembled, 'Frankenstein'-ish freakiness. The sticky sweetness irritated me the most about this one - even more so than its hot booziness; and its lack of esters and 'natural' yeastiness almost reminds me of a bottom-fermented Doppelbock rather than a true strong Belgian ale. Special in AB InBev's context for sure, let's keep it at that...