Tag Archives: chardonnay barrel aged

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Denmark, Insight Cellars, Wild Ale

Insight Cellars Glimmering Grove

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Brewery: Insight Cellars
Country: Denmark
ABV: 6.6%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Danish Wild Ale with fresh apricots and white nectarines. 2023 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Glimmering Grove is a celebration of ripe summer stone fruits plucked fresh from the tree. Its journey started with a base blend of one, two and three-year-old Danish Wild Ales aged in Chardonnay and Monbazillac barrels. We macerated this with over 600 grams of the finest Bergeron apricots and Tiffany white nectarines from France per liter of wild ale. The final blend features two-thirds apricot and one-third nectarine wild ale, resulting in a harmonious union of sweet and tart that captures the sunlit vibrancy of a summer orchard.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, 2023 vintage, bottled on 26th October 2023. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy golden orange colour, with a one finger white head that had pretty good retention, while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Sweet and tart, fresh cut ripe yellow stone fruit, nectarine, peach, apricot.
Taste: Sour, tart, nectarine, apricot, peach, oak, light funk.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Very nice aroma full of ripe yellow stone fruit. Nice flavours too, but didn’t quite match the near unbeatable aroma.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Denmark, Insight Cellars, Wild Ale

Insight Cellars Sunstead: Apricot

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Brewery: Insight Cellars
Country: Denmark
ABV: 6.7%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Danish Wild Ale with fresh apricots. 2023 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Our Sunstead series captures the essence of perfectly ripe stone fruits, allowing us to savor the warm flavors of summer all year long. The base beer is a blend of one, two and three-year-old Danish Wild Ales aged in Chardonnay and Monbazillac barrels. We racked this onto freshly destoned and crushed Bergeron apricots at a rate of over 600 grams of apricots per liter, and left it to macerate with the fruit for over a month before bottling. This complex, soft and juicy beer tastes almost like biting into a fragrant apricot, transporting you back to the high days of summer no matter when you drink it.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.04

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, 2023 vintage, bottled on 21st November 2023. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy golden orange colour with a one finger white head that had good retention, and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Tart, apricot, light funk, with a splash of orange zest.
Taste: Sour, tart, apricot, orange zest, lemon, oak, light funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Good aroma and flavours, but didn’t seem as ‘ripe’ as White Peach and White Nectarine, as the sour intensity was quite a bit more with Apricot.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Denmark, Insight Cellars, Wild Ale

Insight Cellars Sunstead: White Nectarine

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Brewery: Insight Cellars
Country: Denmark
ABV: 6.6%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Danish Wild Ale with fresh white nectarines. 2023 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Our Sunstead series captures the essence of perfectly ripe stone fruits, allowing us to savor the warm flavors of summer all year long. The base beer is a blend of one, two and three-year-old Danish Wild Ales aged in Chardonnay and Monbazillac barrels. We racked this onto freshly destoned and crushed white nectarines at a rate of over 600 grams of nectarines per liter, and left it to macerate with the fruit for over a month before bottling. This complex, soft and juicy beer tastes almost like biting into a fragrant nectarine, transporting you back to the high days of summer no matter when you drink it.

My rating: 4+
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.44
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, 2023 vintage, bottled on 19th October 2023. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy golden orange colour, with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly to nothing, while leaving only sparse to no lacing.
Aroma: Freshly cut extremely ripe juicy nectarines, peaches, and apricots.
Taste: Sour, tart, nectarine, peach, oak, light funk.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: The aroma of those white nectarines were perfectly ripe and although it wasn’t quite there with the taste, it was still good and enjoyable.

5 - Excellent (must buy), Beer Reviews, England, Mills Brewing, Wild Ale

Mills Picture Pot Blend 3

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Brewery: Mills Brewing
Country: England
ABV: 6%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Mills Brewing make beer with minimal modern intervention, relying on local wild yeast cultures and the influence of nature to ferment

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Picture Pot was made from a blend of three brews produced in January and November 2019. Fermentation took place in Californian Chardonnay and Herefordshire cider barrels. The resulting blend was dry hopped with whole leaf Loral and Enigma. Drink young for fresh hop aromatics and aged for increased brettanomyces funk.

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.5
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in April 2021, with a best before date of April 2026. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden colour with a two finger white head that had pretty good retention and eventually settled to a nice fluffy cap, while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Green apple, grapefruit peel, white wine grapes, vinous, grape gummy candy, light berry notes, oak, citrus zest.
Taste: Light to moderate tart and sourness, white wine grapes, grape gummy candy, light oak, citrus zest, and a touch of funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Really nice aroma and flavours, and just so easy and enjoyable to drink. This is great to drink right now, but I wish I had another bottle to age since I do enjoy funk, and it would have been interesting to see how this ages.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Brasserie Le Détour, Farmhouse Saison, France

Le Détour Saison Festival

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Brewery: Brasserie Le Détour
Country: France
ABV: 6%
Style: Farmhouse Saison

Brewer Description: (from bottle) A beer brewed for the 2021 BXL Beer Fest. Our take on the classic saison style aged in Chardonnay barrels. Diastaticus will prevail!

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.91
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 750ml bottle, with a best before date of August 2023. From the 2021 BXL BeerFest beer pack. Poured into a Holy Mountain tulip glass.
Appearance: A very nice clear golden blonde colour with an almost two finger white head that had decent retention and left lots of nice lacing.
Aroma: Brett, clove, banana bread, light Chardonnay, with floral notes.
Taste: Light funk, brett, white grape, apple, pear, a touch floral, with an interesting citrus lime peel bitter finish.
Mouthfeel: Crisp, light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: An enjoyable and very easy drinking Saison.