2013 Vintage, purchased late 2022 and opened in 2023.

Bush Ambrée aged in oak for 6 months, and then re-fermented with sugar and yeast in the the bottle. This gets the ABV up to 13%.

These used to be in gold foil adorned, Deus type bottles, but this is simply a regular 750 mL. Modest pop on opening but there is some carbonation present – always a relief. At ten years old, the beer is certainly past its best IMO with perhaps a tiny touch of oxidation present, BUT it’s also still quite drinkable and entirely acceptable within the parameters of what is (and is not) supposed to be.

Clouded brown body with a decent amount of carbonation considering the age and the ABV. Head is obviously short lived, but I was happy that it was present at all.

Everything in terms of the nose and the tastes improve on warming. The oak increases, the smoothness of the body increases, the alcohol increases and the whole beer comes together on sitting. In fact this just gets better and better in the glass, and at the end I went from feeling that I was rescuing a beer on its last legs to being far more enamored with a beer that had aged rather well.

Sweet (obviously), oak notes (obviously). but they manifest themselves in terms of alcohol rather than wood. Sugar alcohol is the order of the day, and about 8 oz of this is enough, maybe 6 would have been OK too. There was a lot of undrinkable sediment, so I suggest careful decanting.

The gold cage had the ink smudged off it, but I did make out BB and 16, so it maybe that this beer has a recommended shelf-life of three years. There’s no doubt that it can stand a whole bunch more than that, but at ten years we’re pushing it. I knew that, but still wanted to take the chance. In the end I was surprised at how well it had held up, BUT if you’ve got ’em, drink ’em! If you see ’em within 5 years of bottling I’d buy them. Enjoyable, would have been stellar 5 years ago I suspect, but still a very nice experience.