Author Archives: Master Quill

Grimbergen Goud 8º (8%, 33 cl)

Grimbergen Goud 8º, together with Grimbergen Optimo Bruno are the specialities in the range of Grimbergen Beers. The other beers in the Grimbergen range are the usual suspects in Abbey Beers: Blond, Dubbel & Tripel. Recently I already reviewed Grimbergen Optimo Bruno, so I’m happy to review this Grimbergen Goud 8º to complete (already) the Grimbergen Specialties. Goud 8º is a strong Blonde Beer that has an additional fermentation in the bottle, also some aromatic hops are used.

Color: Orange Gold with light yellow to white foam.

Nose: Light and fresh. Yeast, as in white bread. The nose has a summery feel to it. Also some hops, but not a lot. Dust and unlit cigarette tobacco.

Taste: Well, this tastes like a Tripel really. Fresh with slightly warming alcohol. Nice and unpretentious. Hints of esters, dried apricots and orange skin. It’s a bit of a shame, this does not continue into the finish. The finish itself is a bit sour and light. This does have a small hint of cannabis on the taste though! Although the brand is owned by Heineken, the beer does not come from Amsterdam. It is unknown how the Cannabis got into the mix 😉

Not a lot to add about this Grimbergen really. It’s not bad at all. A nice beer to drink outside or by the waterside and see people go by and enjoy. Nice Belgian Beer.

Points: 82

Special Roman (5.5%, 25 cl)

Special Roman is made by Brouwerij Roman from Mater, Belgium. Mater is in the Oudenaarde municipality, a region where Flemish Brown Beer is made. Brouwerij Roman was founded in 1545 as a farm brewery and inn, and has an impressive portfolio of beers. Amongst others the Ename Abbey Beers are made here as well as Sloeber and the Adriaen Brouwer Beers. In the list of products Special Roman is absent, but the page about Special Roman does still exist. Maybe it’s discontinued?

Color: Dark Brown, coffee-colored foam.

Nose: Murky, dark but also fresh. Candied Sugar, putty and hints of acidity.

Taste: Candied Sugar and unexpectedly only lightly acidic. Maybe some acidity fell victim to the additional ageing? Likeable. Malty (roasted) and hints of burnt sugar. Definitively some hops are in the mix. Not a lot of yeast is noticeable. It seems light and the finish is short. Nice stuff nevertheless. Elegant and perfumy and half-sweet. The sweetness isn’t dominant at all.

This beer is less acidic than other Flemish Brown Beers due to the use of hops. It is a top fermenting beer, and this example was aged 10 months past it’s best before date, and it aged well. 8ºC is the advised drinking temperature.

Points: 83

Grottenbier Bruin (6.5%, 33 cl)

Pierre CelisThere are a few “rock-stars” amongst the Belgian brewers and one of them surely is Pierre Celis, who unfortunately is no longer with us (1925-2011). Pierre Celis was born and lived in Hoegaarden, famous for its white beer. As Pierre saw the his beloved white beer disappear in 1955, he decided in 1966, to remake the white beer under his own name. His uninsured brewery burned down in 1980, after which he reopened his brewery in Austin, Texas, USA.

GrottenbierAfter he sold his brewery to the Michigan Brewing Company, Pierre returned to Belgium to add a new notch on his stick. He developed a dark Belgian Beer to age in caves. Grottenbier roughly translates into Cave-Beer. Pierre favored caves for their constant temperature in which the beer could mature. At first the caves of Folx-les-Caves were used, but soon the Enterprise was transferred to the marl-caves of Kanne.

Since 2001 the beer is made by the St. Bernardus brewery (in Watou, Belgium). The beer is then cave-aged 42 meters under the ground, at a constant temperature of 11ºC. The bottles are regularly rotated, the same as Champagne.

Color: Orange-brown.

Nose: Fresh and acidic. Citrussy, yeast and hops. Caramel and some kind spice. But then dish water, with some added lavender. Quite strange if I may say so.

Taste: Vitamin C. Some lemon a pretty acidic. Little hints of burnt Sugar, that makes the beer quite bitter. Leafy. lacks balance. Not soapy on the palate, but it has soapy texture. Leaves quite a sour and stale impression. The warmer the beer gets, the more bitter it grows, and less entertaining it becomes.

It is something in between. It’s quite bitter and it has Lambic like acidity. I feel this beer doesn’t quite know what it is. It has the refreshing acidity, but also some burnt Sugar bitterness and hops. Don’t drink this too cold. 10ºC and up. It gives off more aromatics and shows more character. It ages well (I aged this for an additional 10 months), but this beer just isn’t for me. Still I do recognize this is a beer of quality.

Points: 75

Torres Viña Brava Parellada Muscat 2012

And here we have yet another summer Wine brought into our lives by my mother. This time from spanish giants Torres. Viña Brava is a series that convey the flavors of the mediterranean coast and in this case Catalonia. For 2013 the Parellada grape is combined with Garnacha Blanca to form a semi sweet white Wine, but this 2012 expression combines Parellada with the Muscat grape for a medium sweet white Wine. 11,5% ABV.

Torres has a nice website where this expression I’m about to review isn’t present. Advised drinking temperature for this wine is 10ºC (for fish and seafood), but with these 30ºC temperatures we have outside at the moment, this wine can be very well drunk with ice-cubes (as an aperitif or hot-weather refreshment).

Color: Light white wine.

Nose: Sweet, peaches and apricots (fresh ones and dried ones). It has a nice refreshing acidity as well. Lime juice and spicy. Nice.

Taste: Lemony and half-sweet. Good balance and very refreshing (I’m tasting this at the advised temperature without ice-cubes). Quite simple, but that isn’t a problem with this kind of wine in these circumstances. A very nice summer wine, like a lemonade. Clear apple juice.

Again thumbs up from my mother and my wife, and who am I to say something different! It’s easy and laid-back, luckily not too sweet with a nice acidity to it. Good.

Points: 79

St-Feuillien Blonde (7.5%, 33 cl)

This time a top-fermented Abbey beer made by Brasserie St-Feuillien (recently also called Brasserie Feuillien and/or Brasserie Roeulx). It’s history can be traced back to 1873 to the Friart Family, but the name, and the history behind it is much older. In the seventh century AD an Irish monk named Foillan (Faelan) passed through Le Roeulx to preach the gospel, but before he could do that he abused and finally beheaded by highwaymen. Right there where this happened, a chapel was built in his name (twelfth century AD). The chapel was eventually extended into an abbey, and as good Belgian monks do, they brew a great Beer on site…

Those of you who regularly read my Beer reviews know I like to age my Belgian Beers. Most Trappist and Abbey beers (top-fermented) usually get better with extra ageing, but not all. Some do get better, but become dirty, with sometimes a lot of unpleasant looking yeasty flakes floating in the Beer. This St-Feuillien Blonde was aged for an extra three years (quite unusual for a Blonde, even an Abbey one). Another thing that could affect the beer is the extremely hot day we’re having. (33° C), also quite unusual for this country.

Color: Brown Gold with very fine caramel colored fine cream.

Nose: Right out of the gate, unexpectedly fresh and citrussy. orange skin and brown candied sugar. After a while this beer turns. The fresh smelling start most definitely wears off and changes into a sweet-smelling kind of funkiness like cold dish water! Absolutely strange and interesting. I guess the turn comes from the yeast warming up, and there is quite a lot of yeast floating in my glass (sets slowly).

Taste: Again fresh and syrupy. Excellent balance between the sweet, the bitter and the freshness. It’s even less acidic than expected. Very nice, lovely stuff. Very late character building bitterness comes through, with a nice fresh green spiciness to it.

Optically not pleasing with all those flakes floating around, but especially the palate is great. Probably not for ageing, but when tasting this blindfolded, I guess the extra ageing did improve this beer (and it probably changed a lot over time). I will have to try a new bottle of this Beer soon, just for comparison of course!

Points: 83

Santa Cristina Cipresseto 2007 Rosato Toscana

Summer has arrived here finally and lasts for almost two weeks now.  That is a first! Probably a record has been broken for the last 5 years, since summers lately were less interesting than spring. That gives me lots of chances to try some summery wines in their natural habitat, meaning outside in the garden to be drunk in nice weather. Well I won’t let the sun cloud my palate, so I’ll stay critical. This is already the second wine of Santa Cristina to grace these pages. Earlier I reviewed the Santa Cristina Toscana IGT 2009.

Santa Cristina Cipresseto 2007 Rosato ToscanaColor: Beautiful red salmon.

Nose: Grounded coffee, dust and wet earth. It has a nice depth to it. Next up is the fruit. Some sweet apple juice. Classy stuff. Some floral hints. Meaty, not sweet and not acidic. Well balanced nose, that has a lot to offer.

Taste: Licorice, and a very thin acidity. Some bitterness and some wood. Taken in big gulps, a little bit of meaty body and a hint sweetness come through. The body is even less interesting than the finish, but still as nice as the nose was, the palate is rather disappointing. Totally unbalanced and a bit weak. Tastes a bit as a watered down red wine…

The landscape of Tuscany is utterly stunning, and the nose of this Rosato promises a lot. I’m almost in tears that the palate is…rather weak. It’s almost a dream gone bad! Having said that, the wine is not thát bad. It just could have been better. I have another bottle of this (from the same year). If that one turns out to be different from this one, I’ll rewrite this review. For the moment this one stands. In defence of this Rosato I have to say I probably let this lie around the cellar for to long, but I can’t image that’s it.

Points: 73

Stormhoek Moscato 2013

And here is another wine favoured by my wife and my mother! Again a white one, but this time without bubbles but a lot sweeter. Master Quill already reviewed a white wine from the Western Cape region of South Africa. I have the feeling there is quite a lot of marketing going one here, since the label states as with the best of cosmetics: London Cape Town New York. Wow! The wine has the following enlightened text on the back label: Be Moved. Love. Encourage and Excite. Be enthusiastic. Motivate. Change the World or go Home…

Stormhoek can be found on the internet, but also on Facebook and Twitter.

Color: Ultra light white wine.

Nose: Sweet, artificial fruity sweet. Lots of peaches and apricots. Slightest hint of acidity. lemons. Lemonade. Very very fruity (and sweet-smelling).

Taste: Very sweet and really a peach drink. It’s so sweet and fruity I can hardly notice it is made with grapes. Funny that the back label stresses that it ís made with grapes, and tastes of grapes. I have drank wine made with muscat grapes before, but never so fruity as this one is. Deep down there is some acidity that very much resembles Vitamin C.

Going by the nose and the taste I would almost call this a children’s wine. Still this summer wine does have 8.5% ABV, so nevertheless it isn’t suitable for children. Recommended by my mother and my wife. I will recommend this a s a compote! Definitely designed for a young public (read women), hence the marketing.

Points: 75

Pierlant Blanc De Blancs Brut

Here we have some bubbles from Landiris France, and again a wine both my wife and my mother love. My wife loves champagne, but with a plethora of Champagne houses and really how many of them are really good, sometimes we venture into other sparkling wines, especially for those occasions when the lively conversation makes you almost forget what you have in your glass. So for those carefree moments we buy sparkling wines like this. Nice to drink, nothing complex, and it doesn’t mean you have to get a second mortgage.

Pierlant Blanc De Blancs BrutThis wine is 100% Blanc de Blancs and produced with the following white grapes: Chardonnay, Colombard, Ugni Blanc (Trebbiano) & Gros Manseng harvested from: Bordeaux, Charentes and the Loire Valley. The wine has an ABV of 11%.

Color: White wine, with a fine mousse.

Nose: Slightly sour and sunny green apple skins, lightly fruity and elegant. Hints of spice, but overall very light. Nice aperitif wine.

Taste: The same here, light aperitif wine, without any off notes. Half sweet and slightly acidic. Nice balance. Very easy and simple and extremely drinkable. Light wine, with a light and dry finish. When drinking a lot of this the wood like bitterness gets noticeable and starts to dominate. So I wouldn’t drink a whole bottle by myself.

In our case, this wine accompanied a nice light tuna and past dinner, with a lot of fresh vegetables. and I have to say that this wine accompanied such a diner very well. Excellent match! In the end this is excellent summer stuff.

Points: 82

Glenfarclas 15yo 1991/2006 “Breath of Speyside” (60.2%, Adelphi, First Fill Sherry Butt #5642, 615 bottles)

Almost two weeks ago I reviewed a Adelphi Highland Park, and here is the next Adelphi bottling. This time a bastard malt. A bastard malt is a Whisky of which the distillery name can’t be found on the label. Usually some kind of fantasy name pops up like Probably Speysides Finest (Douglas Laing name for Glenfarclas), Director’s Tactical (Douglas Laing name for Talisker) or Laudable (Douglas Laing name for Laphroaig). Well this is called Breath of Speyside and in this case, that is Adelphi’s name for Glenfarclas. Glenfarclas do sell off lots of casks, but never allow the bottler to use the Glenfarclas name.

Glenfarclas 15yo 1991/2006 Breath of Speyside (60.2%, Adelphi, First Fill Sherry Butt #5642, 615 bottles)Color: Orange copper gold.

Nose: Cream and cherries. Quite fresh and fruity. Very lively, and not that deep dark in your face Sherry. Very obviously a first fill sherry. Perfumy, with a nice touch of wood, very elegant. lovely stuff and easier on the nose than A’bunadh, that can be harder or harsher (due to its youth). Toast and pepper come to mind and very spicy. Pot roast, tobacco and furniture polish. Very lovely and interesting nose. Great complexity and perfect balance, between the Whisky and the Sherry.

Taste: Creamy and woody. Nice sweetness that is delivered after the initial woodiness. It’s not overly woody though. Again roasted meat, combined with the dry woodiness and the late sweetness (caramel), makes for a very interesting play on your tongue. Excellent. Definitely elements of wine (Sherry). Also some organics I usually get from some white wines. Thick excellent stuff that works well at this high ABV. This Glenfarclas really intrigues me. Well chosen cask.

Heavily Sherried and high in alcohol, so this is Aberlour A’bunadh territory, the only difference being the age. A’bunadh is a young Whisky, probably around 8 to 10 years old, and this Glenfarclas is 15 years old. This one is milder older and wiser. It’s deeper, more complex and less rough around the edges. The only problem, you can only get this at three times the price of the Aberlour A’bunadh, just to show you how cheap the Aberlour actually is…

Points: 89

Macallan 1980/2012 (43%, Gordon & MacPhail, Speymalt)

Next up an already rather “old” Macallan. Macallan is a brand with a huge reputation as a Sherried Speysider, and therefore a huge following. The quality is unmistakable there, just have a look what older bottles fetch these day at auctions. Since the “new” Fine Oak series, Macallan have again a huge reputation, but this time more as a marketing giant, but again with a huge following. Alas from a connoisseurs point of view it not thát much of a Sherried Speysider anymore, not as they used to.

This is an independently bottled Macallan, and it doesn’t look like a heavily Serried Speysider. If I’m not mistaken Gordon & MacPhail can bottle Macallans in the Speymalt series, with a vintage, when the distillery themselves do not have a vintage of that same year themselves.

Macallan 1980/2012 (43%, Gordon & MacPhail, Speymalt)Color: Orange gold

Nose: Hmmmm, fabulously old and waxy smelling Speysider we have here. Lovely! Old soaked wood and very deep half-sweetness. The initial blast of fruitiness, and waxiness leave the building. What comes next is dry and dusty. The wood turns into old cardboard, but it works. It’s not an in your face Sherried Speysider, but definitely a very nice and elegant Macallan. Quality stuff. Toast and burn paper in the finish of the nose. Hints of a bonfire and vanilla (pudding). The nose is top-class.

Taste: Sweet with an edge. Estery and some acidity, that makes for great balance. Creamy and soft-toffee. Hints of black tea and a tiny hint of anise. Hardly any wood, which is a bit odd after give or take 32 years in the cask. The wood does show itself in the tiny bitter (and soapy) bite that graces the finish.

Absolutely a fine nose, alas the taste doesn’t match up. It somehow lacks some complexity. Having said that it is a damn fine Whisky, that for the price is easy drinkable. Gone before you know it. Therefore easily a favorite when on my shelves. For me a tad too much reduction here, I would have liked this at 46% ABV. Old Fino?

Points: 89

Thanks to Stan for the sample!