Mendocino Talon Barley Wine

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company (United Breweries Group)
Style: Barley Wine
Hopland, California USA

Serve in Snifter

Poured into a snifter. 2009 vintage. 4.0 A: Pours a ruddy brown color. Two fingers of creamy beige head. Retention is pretty good given the ABV and a small ring of lacing is left. 3.0 S: Toffee and caramel. Light plum fruitiness and brown sugar. Simple, but pleasant, and average. 2.5 T: Moderate toffee and caramel. Perhaps a touch of dark fruits. Even simpler than the nose. 2.5 M: Medium to heavier medium body. Good moderate carbonation. Lacking the creaminess that I want from a beer like this. 3.0 D: This beer is completely unoffensive and unassuming. It’s boring without being bad. I didn’t really expect it to be any good either given the brewer. I figured I could get a spot back in my cellar by drinking this and in that regard, this is a success. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 12-24-2011 06:07:38

hazy mahogany with no head; almost honey-like full body with medium relative carbonation.

aroma: lots of chocolaty roasty malt, molasses, minerality, some blackened malt or barley, some leafy hop bitterness, and a bit of alcohol.

taste: heavy malt sweetness, burnt pancakes, warm alcohol, fruity esters, and some leafy hop bitterness.

Not so great by itself -but with Stilton, Raclette, and Westphalian Schinken- quite wonderful.

Murky ruby brown with one finger of tan head. Nose shows oxidation and papery notes, rich and dextrinous with some sharp alcohol. Rich and astringent flavor, slightly oxidized. Bleeeeehhhhh. Can’t drink much of this.

22 oz. bottle shared by dbsdelight- thanks, Dan! 2006 vintage. Pours a deep, cloudy brown color with a thin beige head. Aroma of grapes, brown sugar, caramel malts, toffee, and prunes. Flavor hits all the same notes, with a heavy emphasis on the fruits, especially for its age. Medium-bodied, with a sweet, syrupy mouthfeel and low carbonation. Nice barleywine, but I don’t think the 2006 bottles are going to get any better.

05-May-09 (22-oz bottle: BevMo La Jolla) Aged for about two years in the fridge, how much the beer has changed since bottled isn’t exactly clear, but if memory serves, it seems much smoother and integrated now. Flavors of sweet malt, focused caramel, dried apricot, plum, earth, and toffee. A touch of campfire smoke emerges in the finish after a few sips. Piney hops flavor is present but light and bitterness is gentle. Sweet, fruity aromas of peaches in syrup and dried apricots, plus a bit of earth and toasty malt behind the intense fruitiness. Smooth and full bodied on the palate, rich and fairly syrupy, but not cloying. Carbonation is light and soft. In the glass, the beer is clear and ruby-amber in color, and half an inch of light-tan head crowns the beer. Head retention is about average, fading to a wide, bubbly ring with a filmy sheen across the top. Overall, with a few years of aging, this is truly a wonderful barleywine. It’s simply delicious, a beer you want to keep sipping, a beer you’re sad is gone when the glass is empty, and isn’t that the sign of a great beer? Age this one, your patience will be rewarded.

Appearance: dark browns and blacks with mahogany highlights. Copper-tan head fizzes and fades into a decent collar while swirls leave blotchy lace.
Nose: huge malt bomb slaps me upside the head. Black strap, raisins, prunes, black breads, fruit cake, candied sugars. Spice and heat tickles in the back. Dates and chocolate mingle for an almost indistinguishable pair. Fudge. Cinnamon sticks and licorice root.
Palate: wow. Dry, spiced, wood, and a super dry finish which sucks the moisture from all surfaces inside my mouth; most pleasantly though I must add. Brittle burnt chocolates, dark. Overall quite in contrast with her nose. Lots of spices in the finish; brown and earthen. Dates, prunes, and chocolate mingle in the breath. Wood brushes across the top of my tongue in old-wood barrel style; whisky soaked. Dark sugars burn and crystallize and crumble and melt amidst my quaffing ministrations. Definitely benefits from warming up. Faint tart tingle front of tongue disappears as quickly as it appears.
Final Thoughts: I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I know what I got: phenomenal. A massively tasty Barleywine I could easily while away the hours on a cold, dark, and stormy night…or any night for that matter.

22 oz bomber from Canal’s Hainesport. Poured a good looking deep reddish/brown with an average sized beige tightly packed frothy head. Aroma is solid with notes of caramel, toffee, raisin, nuts, dates, bread, and a touch of alcohol. Palate was pretty damn good with a medium body and a slight hint of syrupyness that was very appropriate for the style, carbonation was light and the aftertaste was heavy and lingering. Flavors of caramel, toffee, slight citrus, nuts, toast and a hint of alcohol soaked cardboard. Overall a good beer and then when you throw the price in this becomes a great beer.

Quite nice. A more subltle barley wine. Poured a medium sized, light tan, foamy, frothy head that settle out after a bit and some lace. Color is a very nice, clear garnet with red highlights. Aroma is dry and bitter malt with hop. Flavor is similar to nose but has some sweetness behind the up front bitterness. Body is full yet soft. Carbonation seems to work well. Finish is pretty long and like flavor plus a strong alcohol factor. This could sneak up on you.