St. Ambroise Vintage Ale

2007 vintage. Beautiful ddep bronzy gold, hazy, with a dense ecru head that displays remarkable retention and generates lace for the entire glass. Aroma is perfumey, with stone fruits, elderflower, and unripened mango all coming to mind. Rich sweet toffee malt (lots of malt in here!) with flavours of apricot, kumquat, and a slightly resinous bitter finish. Perfectly balanced and extremely enjoyable. Thanks Rockley for bringing this one back for me!

2009 vintage note - similar to ’last years’ 2007, maybe less fresh hops, slightly sharper feel and more body... hey it’s 9.8% now!!! Yeah this will age reasonably well, and it’s a good vintage 2007 vintage ale - exceptional, fairly big & balanced brew with (for me) some fairly assertive flavours/aromas of pale dry fruit notably apricot and golden sultana. Lots of hops for structure but they don’t dominate. Pours viscous with rich foam that merges with the beer when you swirl the glass - looks stunning. Not anything like previous vintages - nonetheless good effort. You could age this but why wait. (Footnote: RateBeer is silly to compile different vintage years recipes within the same overall product rating because they apparently differ so much.)

2007 bottle. Aroma is slightly hoppy, with some grains in the nose. It actually kinda smells cheap. Flavour is grainy, with a touch of hops, and an odd bitter malty finish. Meh, this isn’t very exciting. Hopefully it gets better with age. Re-rate. a nice sherry/brandyish aroma mixed in with some caramel matiness. Flavour is full of sweet hops, and some good caramel malts. Finish is quite bitter, hmmmm, this is quite good, the other bottle must have been a bad batch or something, this is a good bitter barley wine. Should be interesting to see what some age does to this, and the hops mellow.

Vintage 2007. I’m sure someone will think I’m crazy, but the instant I tasted this beer, I thought of Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA. This beer is like a much more balanced version though. The aroma is a bit of pine, sweet caramel, mint, and grapefruit. The flavour is a good reflection of the aroma, a bit of pin upfront, with some good malt caramel balancing the middle, and a citrusy grapefruit finish. A top notch beer, but for a premium price, was it worth it......yeah.....but barely.

2006 vintage thanks to radiomgb. Pours a amber orangish color with a soft off-white. Caramel, toffee, banana, sherry, and hints of vanilla and wood. Quite sweet and malty with a little bit of alcohol. Very nice warming brew.

341ml bottle, 8% a/v 2007 version Pours goldy orange with a decent tan head. The aromas consist of malt, spice and citrusy hops. Taste is fairly hoppy, citrus and a sweetish aftertaste. Also noted is a nice warming feeling in the stomcah.

Bottle from the LCBO. 2007 edition. Poured a cloudy amber with a small frothy off-white head. Caramel, pine needles and alcohol on the nose. Initial tasting reveals a thicker than expected mouthfeel, with a perfect level of carbonation. The taste is of rich dark fruits and caramel, tailing off into a surprisingly bitter finish. I’ll definitely put aside a couple of bottles for aging, because I think this one could develop nicely.

341ml bottle, 2007 version. Pours a nice murky, deep orange, with a small beige head. Aroma: piney and citrusy hops, like a pale ale, very nice. Also some fruity esters, pineapple, caramalts, and a hint of alcohol. Taste: More of the same, less hop presence than I was expecting, but still some nice goldings flavour. Fruit and caramel tend to dominate, but they work well together in this one. The ABV is pretty undetectable, no cloying or burning feelings. Over-all I like this beer, it’s much more flavourful and probably a better example of a barley wine than some other stuff I’ve had. I may buy another bottle to age and re-rate some time in the future. I really love and respect this brewery too.