Beer #6000. My souvenir from Rome in April 2022. The beer itself is 2014 vintage. The package looks luxurious with a fancy bottle, simplistic label, burgundy wax cap and everything packed in a colorwise matching cylinder. Those guys know how to make a beer look attractive. The glass is filled with a murky, deep raisin brown beer. Carbonation is oppressed, not surprisingly though. It doesn't go with the style. The surface is almost immediately flat still. I sniff the beer. Hmmm... Another hmmm... Okay. To be honest, this is a bit strange. I do pick raisin and dried plum, even a hint of cacao. On the other hand, I receive fermented purple grape. As if stale. This is supposed to be a Barley Wine but I start wondering if this is more like an Italian Grape Ale. Somewhat fruity, especially dried fruity, but also a tad woody. Now that I focus even more keenly on the fragrance, I start receiving the red wine barrel or foeder. Interesting. Starts making sense. Alright, let me give my tastebuds a sip. Yes. The confusion is sidelined now that I know why the confusion arises in the first place. The Barley Wine elements can be spotted in the form of raisin, plum juice, mashed and fermented dark grapes. The Grape Ale characteristics can't be missed either as the red wine and the red wine barrel nuances make all efforts to win dominance over the BW sector. It explains the sourness that a Barley Wine shouldn't really portray. The pieces of the puzzle start finding their places. The body is not more than light-medium. The ABV clocks 13.5 %, which should merit a much bigger body. Now it's clearly a weak link. The finish leaves basically all the BW flavors on the road and carries forward only the wine taste. Unfortunately, It's rather young and a bit harsh and surely not round. I wonder if the beer has rested too long in the barrel to become more or less like the wine itself. What about sunrise? What about rain? What about all the things that the aftertaste said we were to gain? What about killing fields? Is there a time? What about all the things that the aftertaste said was yours and mine? Did you ever stop to notice this crying Earth, these weeping shores? The mouthfeel is light-medium, heavily vinous, barrel aged, intense and moderately tart. It's still slightly lip-glueing but also woody, young, tannic and a tad harsh. This is nine years old but tastes like bottled last summer. The aging has absorbed the wine aromas astonishingly anxiously and overshadowed the classical BW notes. What I'm really glad about is that I solved the mystery of tartness. The red wine is the culprit. It must be. I started with 3.6 but the grade climbs to 4.0. It all makes sense now. More than well.