Fullers Vintage Ale 2000

Formerly brewed at Fullers
Style: English Strong Ale
London, England

31st July 2008. Very sweet beer. Pronounced red fruity start, raspberries plus subtler strawberry and cherry. This is followed by a sweet creamy malt with a whisper of milk chocolate. The abv is well disguised in this easy drinking complex beer.

Pours reddish orange, thin dissipating head.
Aroma is potent here, full of musty orange peel, a hint of herb, woodiness, spice. Reminded of the smell of an old house.
Brown sugar flavour initially, plum fruit, warming yet bitter spiciness. Mustyness from the aroma translates to the flavour, ending with a slight caramel sweetness.
Finish is pruney, sweet with mild bitterness and lasts a while.
This aged very well, a well rounded, unique tasting ale.

Nose: Can not find any other word to describe it, except ’cobwebs’. Like walking into an empty, dusty room of an old house with wooden floors. Rather strange, but cool. ...Hardly any fruit in this one. Slightly sugary, with some yeast. Unique! Flavours are dark and dry. A nice bitterness comes through in the middle and lingers on in the finish. Some mustiness in the flavours also. The hue is a nice dark orange/brown, with a nice haziness.

Bottled. 2008 Copper with off-white head. Aroma of malt, red berries and alcohol. Flavor is caramel, alcohol and fruit

Bottle No. 42624. I could smell dark fruit the moment the seal on the cap was broken and before I’d even poured it. Poured a beautiful copper colour with a large creamy white head. Smells of dark fruit - plums and raisins, with an underlying maltyness. This carries on into the flavour. I t has a strong port-wine flavour, full of dark fruits. Caramel maltyness underlies the flavour. a slight bitterness/alcohol flavour towards the end. Very, very nice.

Tasted 29/05/2009. 500ml bottle from Regional Wines and Spirits. Musty old borrowed duffel coat on the nose. Tastes nice but alcohol and autolysis don’t have a lot to hold them up now. A lovely drop still... It could be worth holding onto, out of interest, but I suspect this one is past its best.

Bottle number 43157, courtesy of Robert at Mr. G’s in Dallas, TX (and ilovedarkbeer for his work at getting Robert to give it to him at no charge). Pours with a huge, long lasting egg shell colored head over a hazy bronze kettle hued body. The head will not quit, even after about an hour in the snifter. The beer leaves fantastic, sheets of lacing on every swirl and sip. Aroma is, wow, complex. Sweet, bready, tang, sherry, port, light oxidation, British ale yeast, rum, chocolate, dough, cinnamon, raisins, light alcohol, dark raspberries, currants (from the fusel alcohol), nougat, cassis. Layers upon layers in the aroma, a new experience each sniff. Taste is sweet and doughy with spice, cinnamon, toffee, pralines, a bit of oxidation (9 year old beer here folks, but it is really amazingly well kept). There is a bit of lingering bitterness too (ancient British hops). Now for the second sip. More golden sweetness, wood, light cedar, ashy, fruity with blackberries, some alcohol, and old library books. Really holding up well, but the aroma cannot be matched by the taste, no matter how hard it tries (but that might be more the complexity of the aroma over the taste of the beer). Mouthfeel ties the knot on this beer, syrupy, velvety and smooth, light carbonation. Absolutely brilliant and a treat to have tried.

Beer Rating #1000 (when you subtract all the sakes, ciders, meads, etc.) First off, I want to sincerely thank Robert, the man behind the “rare wine room” at Mr. G’s in Plano, Texas, for not only allowing me to try this rare beer, but also for providing it to me at no charge. What a gentleman. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to try something that is both scarce and delicious for the important milestone that is my 1000th review. My bottle pops with plenty of carbonation after 9 long years of slumber. The smallest amount of light escapes from a deep garnet colored body that glistens when the light hits it in a fashion similar to said gemstone. A large off-white head rapidly blossoms in the glass to revel a sizeable fluffy mass containing an abundance of yeasty bubble pockets. The lacing is incredibly beautiful; it could easily be mistaken for silky English lace. This crème colored blanket of a head coats the walls of the glass and gives no indication that it plans to depart any time soon. A gentle swirl rouses the slowly shirking, but never vanishing head back to its full height. This is particularly impressive for a beer so advanced in years. One could easily mistake it for a freshly beaten egg-based dessert. The nose of this fine ale has many complex layers. Fresh blackberries and blackberry jam dominate the first sniff followed by blackcurrants, frozen blueberries, rum cake, pralines, toffee, jelly based chocolate candies, gumdrops, vanilla yogurt, must, fleeting citrus hops, lactose, and a hint of nutty and papery oxidation. Cleary this ale has been properly taken care of over the years. The taste is equally impressive. Warm runny caramel appears in the forefront followed by brown sugar, brandy soaked bread pudding, freshly baked Turkish sweet breads, attic dust, Spanish cedar, faint tobacco leaves, river rocks, and some earthy humus. Although the mouthfeel is moderate, it is one that is incredibly smooth and shockingly quaffable at 8.5% alcohol by v