I have a second generation Wy 1728 which has worked very well and am thinking of tasking it for a barleywine or VERY strong porter to make now and bottle for next Christmas-experiences?

That's a great yeast and will make a great BW. I've used it for various styles, almost all of them pretty strong, and it's always done a really good job for me.

Should work great because of its high alcohol tolerance (12%). It's a weak attenuater (69-73%) so keep your mash temp pretty low...147-150, and make sure you don't add too much character malt or any dextrine malt. It's a suggested brew by Wyeast for that particular strain for the American Barleywine so they believe it'll work well too. Ironically, it's probably too neutral to be used on an English style Barleywine. I've got it going right now on a Foreign Extra Stout. The ambient room temp is 55 degrees, but the temp on the LCD strip attached to the bucket reads 61 degrees. I pitched it about 16 hours ago at 61 degrees. Even at that low temperature, it's already bubbling once every 7 seconds so it doesn't mind the cold. Good luck.