“If you can bear the wait, this classic Dubbel will truly come into its own after 6 to 30 months of repose in a quiet, cool place to allow the already prominent plum, raisin notes to reconcile to perfection.”
We couldn’t even wait two weeks since the day we bought this bottle let alone lay it down for 6 months! Maybe another bottle is on the cards 😉 Moving on. We served this in a wide rimmed chalice. The dark brown pour just reveals a mahogany hue when held against the light. A wholesome three finger head is generated which retains well but eventually peels off and establishes a thin sheet that omits a wavy lace pattern down the walls of the glass. The term “pinning the tail on the donkey” comes to mind when summing up this aroma. They’ve absolutely nailed the basics. We get a nose-full of chocolate cake, licorice, tobacco, banana bread, clove and raisin that simply erupts out of the glass. We also get faint scents of fig and brown sugar creeping in too. Absolutely divine! In the mouth it’s held up well with a smooth and slightly sticky texture on the palate. The carbonation is low, the body medium-full and a considerably well contained ABV (7.5%) makes for a gracious swallow. Seriously drinkable. Upfront it’s malts-a-plenty. A delicious little plummy twang cuts in which opens up an approach for milk chocolate, licorice and ovaltine to sail through the mid and punctuate with a lightly roasted, somewhat sweet, chocolatey and figgy finish. Great duration on the back too, this lengthy and lustful drop just keeps getting better as it warms. Here’s another offering that this highly respected Kiwi brewery can add to its growing list of cracker beers. Another bottle of this to lay down is certainly on the cards, if it somehow gets better than this then we’re looking at a definite 10. Delicious!