I would love to get some older Darkness. Do I have any hope with an '08 DL? I know, I know, post an ISO. Still, looking for opinions... Thanks, and cheers!
Correct. Incorrect. 2007 was absolutely stellar. 08 was second (with nothing really coming close after that) in a recent tasting of 2007-2012 I held in late December.
Great feedback you all. Thank you for this. I actually have 3 of them, and was just wanting to go for an old Darkness for one of them. I had heard '08 DL might be falling off, so I am SUPER excited to hear this. I may throw up an ISO for an '08 or at least '09 Darkness, and if I get crickets...well DANG!!!! I guess I just have to crack it with my crew. Soooooo tragic.
FWIW, the ranking the group agreed unanimously with was: 1. 2007 2. 2008 3. 2010 4. 2009 5. 2012 . . . . . . . . . . 6. 2011 2011 was horrendous. The bottle we opened was slightly infected. It tasted better (but still not good) fresh.
I would imagine you could get an 09 for it. There just aren't very many bottles of 08 left. It was only the 2nd year of darkness and the bottle count was pretty low... That being said, I drank 07-12 on New Years and 08 was my favorite. Good luck!
While I generally agree on most things with Kevin, I couldn't disagree more strongly with regards to his groups dislike of 2011 Dark Lord. I believe that 2011 is the best vintage fresh (or in a very close tie with 2008), and while the coffee character was more prominent and has oxidized in a mildly unplesant way, I wouldn't say it tasted infected (if in fact that is the character your group found as infected). OP: I'd say you would have little problem landing a 2009 / 2010 Darkness for the 08 Dark Lord, but I'd imagine you'd have a harder time finding someone willing to let go of an 08 Darkness. 07 Darkness is on the same level as 04 Dark Lord imsdho. Cheers!
Certainly well said. 11 fresh did have more coffee character as I recall, which was pretty nice. If you like a sweet RIS, then I can see how one could rate 11 highly. Back to the ranking- 07 tasted like brownie batter, and the bottle of 08 definitely had a hint of oxidation character. (Though not so much as to make it particularly bad. It was very solid overall).
