UPDATED: JAN 18, 2024 Bottle at home, 18th January 24. Pours a dark chestnut brown and clear. Aroma is caramel, dark fruits and malts, light sour, wood and barrel, Sherry and liquor. Taste is super complex, barrel, caramel, dark fruits, Sherry, wood, layered and delicious. Cant believe it’s 16%, dangerous

UPDATED: NOV 12, 2021 Bottle. Hazy reddish-brown color with tiny head. Aroma is full on sherry and wood, nutty, red fruits. Taste is super complex sherry wood, mild tannins in the back, plums, some barrel sugars, some caramel and raisins. Oily mouthfeel, low carbonation. Good stuff!

Power tasting at Phill's, bottle
Said to be the batch n.3 (small bottle). Dark mahogany colour. Good sugars, caramel, pretty simplistic in that sense, but the PX adds a nice dimension, raisins. Not boozy, but warming.

UPDATED: OCT 30, 2020 330ml bottle @ Phil's. Pours a hazy rich brown colour with a small beige head. Nose is Belgian yeast, sour red fruits, and booze. Flavour is tart red fruits, burnt caramel, sweet sherry barrels, and Belgian yeast inflence. Medium bodied, ok carbonation, and a moderately high sweetness, a moderate boozy character, and a mild bitterness.

UPDATED: OCT 30, 2020 330ml at Phill's. Appearance: brown with a tan head. Aroma: barrel, weird wine notes, some boiled dark fruits. Taste: along the same lines. Overall: weird.

UPDATED: OCT 30, 2020 330mL bottle, pours a cloudy dark mahogany with a small beige head. Aroma is boozy, with sherry barrels, Belgian yeast, red fruits, and a little caramel. Flavour is quite boozy, with red fruits, caramel, sherry barrels, and some Belgian yeast. While boozy, it’s kept in check. Nicely made.

UPDATED: JAN 27, 2020 Hazy dark amber color with a small tan head, vinous aroma with caramel, ripe fruits, plums and oak, taste is sweet with caramel and candies, full body, soft carbonation.

UPDATED: OCT 31, 2019 Ambrée brune, aucune mousse. Nez sur le chêne avec fruits noirs, vineux, note douce caramel. Gout malté sucré, chêne, vieux fut, caramel, note fruits noirs, bien intense, super corps. Fin longue avec tout ces aromes, superbe!

UPDATED: OCT 30, 2019 Bottle 33cl an amber beer with low head. Nose on caramel, vinous and oak, touch of plum. Aroma on oak and old barrels, vinous, oxydized notes, caramel, plum and old fruits. Very sweet body, quite vinous, alcohol level seems ok with the complexity, burnt finish, still oak notes at the finish.

UPDATED: FEB 18, 2019 Second batch of Alvinne’s Cuvée de Mortagne aged on Pedro Ximénez sherry barrels, bottled in 2017 in 50 cl bottles which are then packed in fancy bottle cases. Only 700 bottles made apparently. Loosely knit, large, separate, pale yellowish bubbles quickly disappearing into nothing, misty deep mahogany brown robe with deep copper-red hue. As expected, intense, ‘desserty’ and very liqueurish nose: walnut liqueur, almond, lots of oxidized sweet sherry, treacle, candied cherries, old wooden furniture and strong vanilla-scenting oak, whisky, soggy raisin bread, figs, dried plums, chestnuts, stewed venison with cranberry sauce, honey, pear syrup, hints of cloves, glue and beeswax. Sweet, densely candied onset, yellow raisins, candied figs, fried apples and cranberry jam with a very faint sourish and equally light umami accents, soft carbonation, almost flat; obviously utterly vinous, slightly glueish mouthfeel, thick syrupy caramelly and pecan-nut-edged malt body soaked in candied and dried fruit effects, bittersweetish but much more sweet than bitter, leading to a nutty, very tannic finish with mild clove-like spicy touches, retronasal ‘okay vanilla’, some non-obnoxious varnish-like solventy effects in the distance and, expectedly, a strong presence of sweet and nutty sherry, which blends beautifully with the nutty side of the malts – and then, combined with a very brandy-ish alcohol effect, creates an effect that strongly reminds me of French walnut liqueur (which the beer actually looks a bit like as well). Intense, very liqueurish beer, more liqueur than beer really, maintaining a high degree of drinkability in spite of its formidable ABV; complex enough, but not to the extent that it overpowers – so in that sense perhaps an ideal dessert beer with which many non-beer-geeks can be convinced, I’m sure. Remarkably, the alcohol, though obviously warming the chest, remains in place, which is a technical ‘tour de force’ and proves – after the ninth Fellowship ale I had last week – that this brewery is not only capable of world-class sour ales, but world-class barleywines alike. Glad I tasted it – and managed to save some in the bottle for later consumption, as head retention and carbonation are not really relevant in a beer like this anyway.