Marks & Spencer Southwold Dark Ale
Adnams plc, Sole Bay Brewery

Poured from a 330ml bottle into a Chimay goblet glass.

Pours a dark brown colour with a small, off white head.

Smells dark, malty, fruity and boozy.

Tastes quite strong, some dark caramel like hops and rich fruity tastes, rather like rum.

Very nice and warming yet balanced.

Good old ale looking rich chocolate brown body with foamy off white/tan head.

Rich aromas of Christmas cake, damsons and burn't sugar.

Rich deep flavour very plummy with treacle rippled with cigar smoke and rum finishing with pepper and bitter heat.

Solid real thick mouthfeel with subjugated and rightly so carbonation.

Great way to finish a good nights drinking.

330cl tall dark brown bottle: best before 12/2011, so a bit out of date when I poured it into an 'Augustijn' badged chalice in 3/2012.

This appears to be very close to 'Tally-Ho' a little stronger and sweeter, but very 'samey' in looks and aroma. This is a live review and it tastes more and more how I remember the breweries normal barleywine: I like it a lot!

Only complaint: the head didn't appear at all.

Purchased at the Marks & Spencer, this is brewed “exclusively” for M&S; coming in a 275ml slim brown bottle, not bottle-conditioned. BB 12/2011, served cool in a tulip-shaped sniffer.

A: dark russet hue in colour, coming with a thin beige frothy head settling fast to a rim on top of moderate carbonation.
S: jammy, toffee-ish, syrupy, burned-sugary, and malty at the same time; a good swirl gives rise to the unique “Adnams’ aroma” (hard to describe) and assertive notes of fruit esters full of ripe melons, dates, raisin, etc. All integrated quite well, yet the aroma is dominated by the sweet edge of malts.
T: not particularly sweet, the swallow is in fact quite estery, fruity, nicely sour-bitter with restrained date-ish and nutty elements to linger, echoed by roast malt’s residual flavour, a decent level of lingering hop-bitterness and licorice, ensued by a semi-chewy palate in the end.
M&D: the carbonation level is generally moderate and not really fizzy for a bottled beer, the body is not quite heavy, and overall drinkability is very decent. I would aspire to try the cask version if Adnams ever makes it happen, as the potentials in this beer deserve to be appreciated further.