Baladin Xyauyu

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottled, 2004 vintage, shared with Degarth, Quake1028 and Gillard. Pours a muddy brown with no head. The aroma is just delicious with a sweet slap in the face of dark fruity esters showing up as figs, dates and sugar dredged plums. Behind the hammer of sweetness is a caramel candy backbone. The taste is an initial sludge of sweet sweet prunes followed by figs, dates and very ripe cherries. It is just silky sweet. The initial impression is that this would be a great dessert beer. A stream of creamy caramel candy wells up only a small offering of flavor next to the wealth of fruitiness. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a beer this expensive. I was prepared for it to be worse. Maybe that is partially why it tastes so darn good. Very good, in fact.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Shared 500 ml bottle, vintage 2014, at Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 14%. Dark brown colour, no head, low carbonation. Intense oaky aroma, notes of molasses too. Extremely sweet and rich flavour, notes of oak, vanilla, caramel, raisins and dark dried fruits.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A beer i have wanted for quite a few years .. . Pours a thick black brown, no carbonation and only fleas of foam .. . sherry, maple syrup, and prunes dominate, with tar and more dark fruit on the finish .. . a fantastic beer! .. . its funny how Italy produced such a wonderful beer like this but produced such a piece of utter shit in the form of mario balotelli...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottled (Silver label, 2nd CS/ES Beer Gathering, thanks SV!). Amber colour with a minor head. Aroma is sweet malts, caramel, alcohol, some mild toasted notes as well as mild notes of alcohol. Flavour is being quite similar along with some honey and dark fruityness. 8 8 8 7 8
Bottled (Golden label, 2nd CS/ES Beer Gathering, thanks S.V.!). Deep copper colour with no head at all. Aroma is malty, fruity and a bunch of raisins/plum along with sweet wooden notes as well as some chocolate and alcohol. Flavour is cherries, chocoalte, mild raisins, some toasted notes as well as toffee and mild plum. Wellbalanced and nice! 8 8 8 8 8
Bottled (Copper label, 2nd CS/ES Beer Gathering, thanks SV!). Slightly hazy reddish amber colour with a small off-white head. Aroma is alcohol, some madeira wine like notes along with wooden and vanillaish notes. Flavour is sweet malts, vanilla, mild spicyness, madeiralike, spicy and also has quite much alcohol filling it up. Yet very balanced. 8 8 8 8 8

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

2005 Bottle Vintage; Sampled January 2009
A wine bottle that, unsurprisingly, has no carbonation. As I pour this beer notes of sherry and prunes are noticeable. The beer has not head and has a deep, dark-red / purple-plum color with a touch of brown around the edges. When held up to the light the beer shows a clear, bright ruby hue, but there is a ton of floaties in the beer, despite resting comfortably for at least a month. This has lots of fruity notes that are reminiscent of Brandy (dark grape notes, concentrated berry notes and a jam-like red wine character). There is a nutty note here as well as the soft sherry notes, but I wouldn't say that this is overly oxidized; it is a very impressively smooth oxidation. The alcohol provides some warming to the nose.

The beer is quite sweet. It finishes with a solid fruitiness that reminds me of Port. Flavors of prunes, raisins, dried blackberries, . In the finish there seems to be a touch of herbal hops and a faint bitterness that doesn't really become noticeable in the finish until long after the beer has left my mouth (giving a chance for the sweet fruit notes to die down a bit). Thee is a light nuttiness and a hint of sherry, but this was a bit more prominent in the aroma. A touch of orange zest (more like Grand Marnier) joins the other more dark fruit driven flavors. While the sweetness provides lots of viscousness to this beer, the lack of carbonation tends to keep the body light some how; despite this the beer is most definitely a sipping beer though

This is one of those beers that you would be hard pressed to guess is beer in a blind tasting. This tastes so much like a fortified wine (like Port), and it drinks just like one as well. I really enjoy a good Port from time to time, and I am really digging this right now. This is very interesting, it isn't overly complex though as really the sweet, dark, oxidized fruit flavors tend to dominate. I'll admit this wasn't at all what I was expecting, but this is quite good.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pours with a deep red body topped by a thin head with no lacing. It’s very sweet and malty with lots of candy sugar and a little bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied and smooth.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

A copper color with virtually no head. The aroma consists of alcohol, dark fruit, and some brandy notes. The flavor consists of maple syrup, honey, sherry, and grapes. A very warming beer but not as sweet as I had imagined. Overall this was a very nice barleywine.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Thanks to eagle for this one. Poured an amber color with small thin head which didn't last. Aroma was pleasant dark fruits vanilla and woody. Flaovr was much the same as it warmed the vanilla jumped out on the tounge. Good Good beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottle from SL, 2004 brew, poured clear amber, no significant head, certainly thinned quickly. Aroma was very nice, dark fruits (prunes, grapes, figs), sweet honey and vanilla, warming alcohol (mullable probably), cherries, oak/wood. Flavor follows every bit of the aroma, some molasses also present, vanilla stronger than in the aroma, very enjoyable, although certainly a malty/mead like product with ample alcohol present. Mouthfeel is moderately sticky, again very mead like, yet enjoyable. Not sure why this isn't more liked, joyously smooth and sweet, although without a doubt expensive. A nice experience.