J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Lagavulin)

Bottle pours a medium golden color with some orange highlights. Nice color but a bit of sediment even though I poured carefully. Big time smoke/peat in the aroma. Very sweet taste, like apples and pears. Goes down easily for almost 12% but a bit thick. Lighter than many barley wines that I have had. Need another, or a few, to age and try later.

Heavy apple juice on the nose. probably from a mix of barley, yeast and peated malt. a very subdued lagavulin flavor, intense sweet barely on the front of the tongue slight bitter rings on the center and sides and a malty sweet finish with fruit overtones. extremely unique. large mouthfuls go down very easy. This should age well.

Bottle: Poured a cloudy amber color ale with a small foamy head with average retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of sweet English style malt with some whiskey notes. Taste is a complex mix between some sweet English style malt with some distinctive arming notes of whiskey and barley. Full body with limited filtration and average carbonation but no apparent alcohol. Very well done but I still prefer the Port version.

2006 bottle from Lithy, thanks! Orange color, hazy. malty, peaty aroma with pineapple. Initial malty sugary sweetness challenged by oak and peat. Tangerine, pineapple. Ash and peat in the aftertaste. Very interesting beer, but the balance is gone.

Bottle 2005 vintage. Look is copper colored with no head somewhat clear. Smell is peat, wood, dried fruits, brown sugar, and whiskey. Taste is wood, almost pepper like from the peat, and more whiskey.

2005 vintage, 275 ml. Deep copper and cloudy with lots of chunky yeast debris swirling around. Small but lasting disc of foam leaves some delicate lace. Aromas of caramelized brown sugar, apples, rum, cream and berries. Flavor is whiskey, caramel, vanilla, earth-spiced apple and grape, all balanced nicely by a long finish of piquant hickory-smoked bacon and charred oak . Medium-heavy body is smooth and lightly syrupy, but never too thick or cloying.

2006 Vintage bottle.
Pours a dull ice tea brown with an aroma of caramelized molasses and raisin. The alcohol provides a sinus-clearing effect to allow the boquet to fully infiltrate the olfactory. Flavor is an exsquisite blend of hickory smoked BBQ sauce, peat, and caramelized sugar and molasses. Full, thick mouthfeel that doesn’t allow the sweetness to last very long; instead, it pushes it out of the way for the whisky and peat to settle in at the finish of the sip. Very interesting beer; I could probably drink more in the future.

12 oz. bottle. Pours rust orange with only the slightest off-white head and lots of floaties. I can already smell whisky as I start pouring it. Also in the aroma is caramel/raisin, vanilla/oak, some faint char, and fig. The flavor is sweet fig and caramel, vanilla, and raisin bread. The finish is oaky and sweet, and leaves a whisky-like aftertaste. Ok.