GASP! Wine!

My, oh my!  Another post about wine!  These are few and far between..  I do have some nice (and fairly standard) wines,  and try some from time to time.. but if you know me, you've heard me say how much easier it is to try new beers than new wines despite me loving wine.  So when I get the chance to open a bottle, you better believe I'll talk about it!

Chateau Bel Air - Bordeaux Superior 2005 Vintage

82% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and a great value at Costco suprisingly!  Fairly nice nose, heavy on the dark fruits - blackberry, cherry, plum.. warming to some deep earthy notes and hints of vanilla.  Although big on the nose, this was a rather light bodied, dare I say watery, wine.  Decent acidity and tannins here, medium amount of the 'lip pucker.'  Again, dark fruits are very foward and the finish is just a touch dry.  I've been sitting on this for a few years now, would be tough to find again, but would be a steal if you could!  Great flavor and balance at an unbeatable price

Sunset in July

So it's a Friday night in July, you're in the Boston area and want good beers.  What do you do?  Go to Sunset of course!

(Don't even bother asking what Sunset is.. or which one.  If you need to ask, you don't deserve their selection)

Sauvingnon Blanc Saison

So hey..  heard of wine barrel-aged Saisons?  Neither have I.  But if you're from MA and have heard of Mystic Brewery, you might have seen these kicking around.  Yeah, pretty badass stuff and great takes on Saisons..  here's one:

Sauvignon Blanc-aged Saison.  Sounds like a fantastic fit!  7.0% ABV and listed at 28 IBUs.   Great pop to the cork-and-caged bottle and a massive pour.  Nice and unfiltered with a wickedly fluffy pure white head.  Funky yeast nose with subtle fruit notes..apricot, peach and apple.  Hints of florals and just a bit of crispy malts.  This is smooth, bubbly, funky and sweet all in one.  The tartness and sweet/fruity tones imparted by the white wine play a front role here and it's nice to not have any real oak notes from the barrels present.  Dry, malty backbone carries this through to a funky floral finish.  A great example of a saison in general and a great tweak to the standard style.

Brash Comes to MA

Got word of this brewery through Clown Shoes, they were doing a collabo with them.  Come to find out, they are who allowed this brewery to get going.  Brainchild of a Texas pub owner who needed to find a spot to brew due to beer laws, Brash found a home in MA.  This is their first official solo release.. enjoyed it at the release party at Deep Ellum...

The Bollocks!  An American Imperial IPA - 12.0% freaking ABV.  DAMN!  Sweet caramel malts, candied orange peel that fights with huge amounts of citrus, grapefruit and piney hops.  This smells simply amazing.  For 12.0% ABV, this goes down far far too easily.  I had to warn the other people around me that ordered it.  I needed water and food or I'd be on my ass in 5 minutes.  This is just damned good.  Thick and syrupy, but smooth and bright at the same time, rich caramel and toffee fade rather quickly into the hop profile of this beer, which soon takes over.  After the first few minutes, this beer becomes all hop.. and I mean all: piney, citrus, grapefruit, grassy..  just damned good.  There is zero sign of the alcohol, which is crazy scary and very very impressive.  This is a great beer through and through, even more so knowing its the first release.  I can't wait to see more of what Brash offers!

5 Beers of Winter.. In July

Yeah.. yeah.. WAY late on this one.  But I wanted to do all 5 in one sitting and I kept being too busy to do so..

Dark Horse from Michigan puts out 5 beers, 1 a month, from November until March, each getting bigger, bolder, boozier.. designed to get you through the long dark days of winter.. supposedly according to them!  So I figured it made more sense to have them all in a single night to really see how much bigger each successive one got.  *note.. I got pretty damn drunk in doing so, so these descriptions are short.. sorry!*

ONE - Oatmeal Stout.  Coming in at 8.0% ABV, this is big oatmeal stout to begin with..  There was no difference in any of the pours.. all pitch black, oily, thick and thick heads.  Nice creamy, sweet aroma..  burnt/roasted malts, black burnt coffee.  Big, heavy and malty.. pure dark chocolate, black burnt coffee, but a touch of the creamy sweetness from the oatmeal.. a surprising touch of bitterness on the finish.  A bit big for my  taste in an oatmeal, but damned good!

Too - Cream Stout.  Another big-ass 8.0% ABV stout..  shit, this is gonna be interesting.   Much bigger head, bit more tan.  Similar in aroma to the oatmeal stout, but with sweeter notes and a touch of vanilla.. more boozy in the nose than the oatmeal as well.  A bit less roasty/burnt that the oatmeal, but still wicked smooth, sweet and big.  The booze bite is highly prominent here but more malty than sweet in taste.  Rich espresso, milk chocolate, touches of roasted malts and the slightest bitterness.  Way bigger than any cream/milk stout I've ever had..  more akin to dipping a triple fudge brownie in espresso ice cream and taking a shot of vodka with is...  YUM!

Tres - Blueberry Stout.  Little bit lighter at 7.5% ABV.  I've had this one before.. but honestly, one of the most unique stout's I've ever had.  You can't place much in the nose besides mocha coffee malts and what may be blueberries.  The sweetest of the 3 so far.. very very creamy, iced coffee, chocolate malts.. and yep.. there they definitely are, the blueberries!  Not in the sense of blueberry muffins, but if you made chocolate blueberry pancakes and drenched them in a thick sweet maple syrup.  I can't say much else, but that the sweet, chocolate, roasty malts here work amazingly with the blueberries.  A definitely must try!

Fore - Smoked Stout.  Another one weighing in at 8.0% ABV.. shit, only been at this for just over 90 minutes...  Very chocolatey here, more so than the others and a nice smoke note.  Bits of hickory and BBQ's pork fat along with some plum and raisin sweetness.  Bold roasted flavors, woody, smoke and a bitter burnt coffee underlies it all.  This felt and tasted much more like a 12% imperial, but drank far too easy.

Finally after just under 2 hours - Plead the 5th - Imeperial Stout at 12.0% ABV.  Hot damn.   After pouring the others, thought it couldn't be possible for a beer to be blacker, but yet here one is!  Thick and oily, the aroma exudes chocolate malts, roasted malts and straight up moonshine with underlying anise and licorice.  Deceptively smooth except for the booze in this.  Incredibly warming..  purest dark chocolate, rich coffee, more of the licorice notes with some dried dark fruit, molasses and a caramel sweetness.  A little smokey and just the slightest bit of a hop bitterness before fading into a burningly alcoholic dry chocolate note.

This is huge, but a bit overwhelming.  Overall, a really cool series of beers.  Stouts are tough to create uniquely and unfortunately, these seem just a bit too similiar beer to beer.  Maybe the same night was a bad idea for these.. how I felt this morning lends itself to that!