Abyss '10

I'd be interested to know too, '10 has been my favorite by a mile and I think I'll be opening my 10-12 vert once 13 comes out.

 

I had one this weekned and it was very good. Some of the harsher notes I find on the fresh bottles had rounded out. It was big and smooth. I also had an 08 recently and that seemed over the hill.

 

I had one about two months ago and it was drinking great. Don't have detailed notes on it, but it definitely hadn't gone downhill yet.

 

Great. From the half-ton of Abyss I've had, this seems to peak between 2-4 years, & starts to slide after that. The '07 I had last summer was beginning to char out. I have a couple '08 left, which was my absolute favorite year, & I hope they hold on longer. But that's probably wishful thinking.

 

I personally think this one is already heading downhill. The last couple of bottles I tried were not as good as it used to be.

 

I agree. Have had a lot of vintages at various times over the last few years and find 2-3 years to be ideal.

 

I had one a week or two ago and thought it was fantastic. Having said that, I think the best way to measure it's progress is in a vert, which I do with Abyss every December with a few other folks. Based on last years vert, it seems like '10 had started to go downhill (the previous couple of years it blew every other vintage out of the water-this year it lost to '07 and '08, and didn't beat '11 or '12 by as wide a margin as I'd have expected based on previous experience). Having said that, it seems like a VERY slow march downhill and expect this to be a great beer for years to come, just maybe a touch less amazing than it was a year or two ago. I'll report back this December after the next vert!

 

been maybe 4 months & thought it was great. for me it seems obvious there's been some slight tweeks to the Abyss the last few years, to me the barrel ratios seemed altered. imho 11 & 12 started off differently than 10. verticals don't strike me as necessarily a sure gauge to predict when every vintage peaks / goes off the cliff.

 

Yeah, I see what you're saying, and agree with you totally in that Abyss has had substantial variation from year to year. I think I was unclear in my original post. My point is that I have repeatedly tried the '10 alongside other vintages. Every time, the '10 was at or near the top of the pack. For instance, both years that I tried it next to the '11, it beat the '11 by a long shot. This past year, however, the margin by which it beat the '11 was substantially less. It's like saying two years ago, it was 10 times better than any other vintage, while last year it was only 5 times better than any other vintage. Sorry to be long winded, but I agree that my previous post wasn't very clear.

 

I have an '08-'11 that I would like to do on my birthday in a couple of weeks, but I will be getting '12 not long after that. I may just wait until Christmastime to open them and go through '13.

 

i agree, my personal preference, 10 beats the brakes off the 11. that said, i find the bourbon in the 10 has diminished to where i feel the two are a bit more similar than they were.