December 2001 Bottle (Sampled 5/1/03 - 4.0): Pours a dark copper color with a medium and dense beige head. Aroma is very sweet malt and caramel, and the alcohol is well masked. Full-bodied and chewy with flavors of caramel and rum, along with some malt. As with the aroma, you don't really get a sense of the alcohol level in the flavor. Finish is long and sweet (borderline cloying). $4 for a 9.6oz seems a little high but it was worth it.
1999 Bottle (Sampled 9/23/03 - 4.1): This vintage is a ruddy dark amber color with a medium beige head. Thin lacing. Aroma is very sweet, mostly caramel with some malt as well. The richness of body is similar to the 2001 vintage. Very rich and chewy. The flavor is very sweet caramel and malt along with some plum. Alcohol is well hidden. The finish is full and sweet. I am giving this vintage a slightly higher score.

2001 bottle. What an odd barley wine. Cloudy ruby appearance. Aroma like brown sugar and cookie dough, that makes you think back to your mother's kitchen at Christmas time when you were a child. The first sip is disturbingly sweet and syrupy. "Ick," you think. But then your tongue gets used to the idea. There is a tapestry of flavors in this beer that not many beers come close to. Carmelized brown sugar, molassas, plums, roasted oats, cherries, oak, maple syrup, and many other flavors I can't identify. This beer does the tango with your tongue and leaves if gasping in a puddle of its own sweat. The thick, sticky body of it coats your mouth and throat. I can compare it to Samichlaus and WWS, but as a barley wine. An outstanding and original beer experience.

Addition 2000 bottle sampled in April 2002: Very rich fruity malty aroma, with fig, raisin, and vanilla as primary notes. Cloudy amber-brown with small head and minimal lacing, lightly carb'd. Full rich, sweet malty flavor, full of esters. Alcohol presence is clearly there, but it doesn't whop you like a 12% might. Med bitterness keeps things in check, but this beer is all about malt, alcohol, and esters. Exceptionally drinkable for what it is, too. 1998 brew (sampled June 2001): Amazing beer. Strong, dark-fruit almost overwhelming aroma made me cautious - but such amazing balance in the flavor was a big surprise! Very flavorful but not overwhelming - excellent hop presence for a classic British barleywine. Exceedingly quaffable for its strength - kinda dangerous. Smooooth. Cloudy (bottle-conditioned) copper-brown, even head with good retention. Thick solid lacing.