Baladin Xyauyù Etichetta Rame (Copper Label)

Bottle shared by Marcus. Really appreciated. Brilliant ruby copper color with no head. Aromas of fruit, tobacco and leather. It’s got floaties! [small ones] Then the aroma goes towards plums. Now I can imagine chocolate. Super full bodied. Hardly any carbonation. Flavor is medium sweet, and then confusing: mapley? dates? Chocolate? And there’s a lot more. This is what SA’s Tripple Bock should hae been. It’s wonderful. Just gets better and better.

4 yrs old. Burgandy, countless sparkling floaters. No head. Aroma: Dry fruits, wood. Flavor: Sweet, dries fruits, syrupy to the point that it might work with pancakes, molaysis, barley. VERY sweet from nose to finish. This is a very fine brew but even at a discount to $34, its out of my range to try very often. At the same time, one must credit the Italians for making this. It is a case-in-point mating between beer and wine (and Italian wines are my personal favorite wines).

Bottle Pours out a copper with some red highs, no head on this one. Aroma was very nice pit fruit with plenty sweetness. Tast was very nice aswell. Sweet caramel with more of the fruit. Very tast and easy to go down. I think this is the best brew I have had from Italy yet.

Colore ambrato con poca schima sottile di breve persistenza.L’aroma della vaniglia,di frutti scuri,prugna e ciliegia sono molto piacevoli.Il sapore è un equilibrio meraviglioso fra frutta e cioccolato.Ottima

At Funky Buddha. Reddish-brown and deep color. Aroma is cherry, plum and grape. Sweetness and fruitiness persist throughout the body. Mellower than expected. Low carbonation. Really nice.

Pours a caramel color with no head. This stuff is flatter than gwen stefani used to be. Aroma is caramel, faded oxidized hops, malt. Flavor is syrupy, caramel, faded hops, kind of port like. Pretty one dimensional but really interesting. Unlike beer more like wine. Can’t believe I paid $40 for this though, not worth the price.

Bottle at Funky Buddha/Case and Keg tasting. Copper color, no head. Aroma is sweet as hell. I get syrup, sugar and brandy. Flavor is really sweet. This is a sipper and good thing it wil store in the liquor cabinet for quite some time. Flavor is loaded with sugar, honey, syrup, port wine. Thick and rich.

2005 Bottle Vintage; Sampled January 2009
A wine bottle that, unsurprisingly, has no carbonation. As I pour this beer notes of sherry and prunes are noticeable. The beer has not head and has a deep, dark-red / purple-plum color with a touch of brown around the edges. When held up to the light the beer shows a clear, bright ruby hue, but there is a ton of floaties in the beer, despite resting comfortably for at least a month. This has lots of fruity notes that are reminiscent of Brandy (dark grape notes, concentrated berry notes and a jam-like red wine character). There is a nutty note here as well as the soft sherry notes, but I wouldn’t say that this is overly oxidized; it is a very impressively smooth oxidation. The alcohol provides some warming to the nose.

The beer is quite sweet. It finishes with a solid fruitiness that reminds me of Port. Flavors of prunes, raisins, dried blackberries, . In the finish there seems to be a touch of herbal hops and a faint bitterness that doesn’t really become noticeable in the finish until long after the beer has left my mouth (giving a chance for the sweet fruit notes to die down a bit). Thee is a light nuttiness and a hint of sherry, but this was a bit more prominent in the aroma. A touch of orange zest (more like Grand Marnier) joins the other more dark fruit driven flavors. While the sweetness provides lots of viscousness to this beer, the lack of carbonation tends to keep the body light some how; despite this the beer is most definitely a sipping beer though

This is one of those beers that you would be hard pressed to guess is beer in a blind tasting. This tastes so much like a fortified wine (like Port), and it drinks just like one as well. I really enjoy a good Port from time to time, and I am really digging this right now. This is very interesting, it isn’t overly complex though as really the sweet, dark, oxidized fruit flavors tend to dominate. I’ll admit this wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but this is quite good.