I mentioned last week that I’d be writing more about a particular 15 year old barley wine I recently sampled, and here it is.

Tall Ship Ales of Squamish, British Columbia, was a sadly short-lived enterprise, but when it was around it was responsible for some of the finest ales brewed in western Canada during the 1990’s. My notes on their brands have been sadly lost to the computer melt-downs and bust-ups I have endured through the years, but I still bear fond memories of their IPA and Imperial Stout, the latter brewed long before others even contemplated such an effort, and their barley wine.

No. 1 Barley Wine, it was called, an homage, I’m sure, to the infamous Bass No. 1 Barley Wine, reputed to have been the first commercially bottled version of the style. It was then a wonderful beer, and although I knew much less fifteen years ago than I do now about aging beers, I was pretty sure it would store nicely for some time to come.

My second to last bottle was tasted earlier this decade and it was a beauty, with still acres of character and plentiful appeal. The final bottle I trotted out in January, however, was considerably older than even that well-aged version and, frankly, I wondered how it would handle the extra years.

Turns out, it did so fairly well. There was a slight acidic edge to it and a distinct thinness of malt, but at the same time there was plenty still going on, like dark fruits and black liquorice in the nose and black currant, prune, raisin, herbals and clove notes in the body. Although obviously a few years past it, I was impressed with the stature it retained and more than happy with the results of a decade and a half of patient aging.

Afterwards, I tasted one of Canada’s new classic barley wines, from one province over and a whole lot fresher. More about that in a day or two.