Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2007 - Tasting and Cellaring Notes
By jason on Mar 2, 2009 in Barleywines & Strong Ales, Reviews
Name: Vintage Ale
Brewer: Fuller’s
Style: Old Ale
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: September 1st, 2008
Original Tasting: October 10th, 2008
Wow, it’s a beer in that comes in a cool red box! Caaatchy. I remember my first thought after seeing this was that you better be making a pretty damn good brew if you’re packaging the thing like that.
Fortunately for Fuller’s, it turns out they’ve been making the Vintage Ale for 10 years now, and by all accounts they have pretty much all been damn good brews.
The 2007 Vintage Ale poured a slightly cloudy light brown. It smelled of heavy sweet malts, almost kind of syrupy. Tons of fruit flavors were evident.
The first thing I noticed after taking a sip was the body on this beer (just like the first thing I noticed about my wife was the body on her - WOWZA!). Being more on the medium-bodied side, it was much lighter then I would have thought. It had a wonderfully sweet bready malt flavor to it. There were strong apple, brandy and raisin notes, along with a slight caramel twinge to the sweetness. A nice hoppy bitterness came in mid-palate and rides out the sweet finish. There was also a touch of a boozy warming alcohol on the end.
For a strong brew, this was amazingly easy to drink, and I can’t wait to try the rest of them.
Cellar Outlook: Nothing to fear here, this is a brew made for cellaring. Here’s a bit from the website:
… will mature slowly over time like a fine wine or whisky - well beyond the best before date that we are obliged to state. Here at Fuller’s, we recently opened (in the interests of research, of course) a few bottles of old Vintages: they tasted better than ever so stock up now and you’ll be glad you did in years to come!
If you’d like to see how some of the previous vintages have tasted, be sure to check out the tasting notes from the Fuller’s website.
Next Tasting: September 2009
Jason
Are you calling your wife medium bodied and brown? Better hope she doesn’t read this.
Josh | Mar 3, 2009 | Reply
Woo. I just tried their ESB and London Pride, (not cellared) Fuller’s is a good brewer. I’ll have to keep an eye out for this one, I don’t think I’ve seen it in my area.
Scott-TheBrewClub | Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
Thanks a lot for sharing this beer idea.I like to read it because I am also a big beer lover.So according to me there a lot of people who will like it.
Michelle Grow | Dec 28, 2009 | Reply