Tasting Notes: JW Lees: Harvest Ale 2000 and 2009

JW Lees: Harvest Ale: 2009 (England: Barley Wine: 11.5% ABV)

Visual:  Darkened ruby, with a cloudy mahogany chest. Fizzy brown head, but not one that settles.

Nose: Red wine/port. Very potent and rich. Spiced fruit. Fruitcake, raisin.  Figgy pudding. Condensed cream.  A slightly musky aroma. Rhubarb Crumble. Very thick and pungent. Vanilla. Custard. Glazed cherries. All flavours mixed in together with a slight cigar tobacco and smoke.

Body: Very sweet. Glacier cherries. Red wine and raisins. Honey and cigars. Mashed cherries. Shortbread. Peaches. Toffee.

Finish: Massive tobacco. Barley. Dry and clinging. Smoke. Curiously sweet intermixed- honey.

Conclusion: There are times when it seems a beer is trying to paint a scene to you, using itself as a brush and your taste buds as a canvas.

This beer in particular crafts an image. An open decanter of port, its aroma wafting throughout the room. A cigar to one side, its smoke wafting gently. Around is a distinguished drinking room, a roaring fire that gently adds a touch of smoke to the background.  A dim light cast through drawn velvet curtains as the drinker is lulled gently to sleep.  Shortbread and fine toffee sit on a silver tray between the drinkers.

Thus comes this beer, powerful and rich. Cast in such imagery it is a treat with the chewy tobacco dominating the finish.

A seriously good beer, fruity, but reigned in by the tobacco end.  Smooth sweet yet challenging. The only thing that keeps it from the top heights is that the tobacco can get slightly omnipresent after a while, definitely well suited for the small bottle it comes in.

A beer that is all the called to image entails.

Background: 2009 edition, drunk early 2011.  This is a beer I’ve been trying to find for a while, but could not find in anything less than 24 beer crates until recently, which was  tad pricey for me.  Apparently a very good beer for ageing based on its reputation, and each comes in a numbered vintage.   As a non smoker I found the tobacco elements particularly challenging.

JW Lees: Harvest Ale 2000 (England: Barley Wine: 11.5% ABV)

(2000 edition, drunk 2010)

Visual: Very dark brown with red touches and a diminishing bubbled brown head.

Nose: Milk chocolate and tobacco. Aniseed. Musty book stores, walnuts and dates.

Body: Very smooth, blackcherry. Custard and smoke. Slightly resinous. Red cherry, milk chocolate and port.

Finish: Bitter, smoke and tobacco. Lots of resin. A slightly unwelcome small vinegar tone remains when everything else has gone.

Conclusion:  Returning to This Harvest Ale with over ten years in the tank we find again that the age has brought a smoothness with it, though in this case despite the silk texture the alcohol is still distinctly noticeable.

There are down sides now, the nose has become slightly musty, though this is offset against the tobacco becoming subtler and the body less chewy.  The fruitiness has become less forceful as well.  Many of these points are not good nor bad just different, and does make for a different drinking experience.

I’d have to consider at this point it is probably just past its peak as the mustiness shows, and a more dry clinging finish confirms.  You can still definitely appreciate the ageing for the smoothness and custard sweetness that has come out, even if the tobacco, whilst weakened has less to go against it making it more evident where it shows.

Interesting, but weakened by the final years I feel.  If I had more time and a spare liver it would be interesting to try around the seven year mark and see the play there.

Background: Continuing the varied posts with GLO over at “It’s the just the booze dancing” over the affect that ageing can have on beers I realised I had one more test to throw into the mix. A pair of Harvest ales, one from 2009 and one from 2000, which I could compare. This second tasting notes is slightly shorter to concentrate on the difference the ageing makes.