Alvino Oak Aged Bourgogne Barrel - Picobrouwerij Alvinne / Den Bierzolder

UCLABrewN84

California

3.93/5  rDev -3.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Thanks to JealousChalice for sharing this one at NoSignsOfPain's birthday bottleshare hosted by mrbubbler.

Pours a slightly murky honey orange with a foamy beige head that settles to a film on top of the beer. Small streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is fairly sour, tart, and funky with some grain and wood aromas. Taste is much the same but is only mildly sour flavor wise. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a good beer but nothing really memorable in my opinion.

Serving type: bottle

07-01-2012 06:37:59 | More by UCLABrewN84

lanbewardin

Belgium

4.25/5  rDev +4.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Reddish brown, 1st glass was see through, 2nd glass is a bit murky. Little to no head.

Smell is tart, wine, lots of brown sugar.

First taste is tart , again with the brown sugar, peppery, grapes,
Some tart winey fruit flavors in the middle. Very interesting.
Wine mouthfeel that coats and drys my mouth out. Just a bit of carbonation.

This is really good , like the other reviewer I'm not sure what style. Its quite similar to the Cantillon wine barrel beers, the st lamvinus and the Zwanze. If you like those, you will like this.

Serving type: bottle

01-14-2012 21:00:01 | More by lanbewardin

wl0307

United Kingdom (England)

4.05/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Purchased at the BSF Bar, GBBF 2009; coming in a 750ml green bottle, BB FEB 2014, served cool in Hapkin's flower-bulb shaped sniffer. NOTE: this beer is fermented with wild yeasts, with addition of grapes, aged for several months in Burgundy wine barrels.

A: pours a dark reddish amber to light copper hue with slight haze, attractive as a glow of Burgundy Gamay red wine does come through; the light beige beer head is not substantial but with pretty good retention, while the carbonation comes very fine and soft.
S: the initial aroma is winey (like a soft but enticing Gamay wine w/o a sharp fruity edge), smoothly musty (due to the wild yeast?), aromatic green tomato-ish and unripe strawberries, along with pale malts and a little brown sugar; a swirl brings out a little bit of fresh un-sweet pears and apples as witness to some magical yeasts. Pleasant, or breezy even, but not very complex.
T: the mildly-flavoured foretaste is weak on malts (and no hops) but accompanied with a medium level of grapey sourness, not at all astringent if wild yeasts are taken into account; then the palate witnesses a gradual transformation of sour-ish white grapes (plus a tannic touch of crushed grape-seeds!) into a mixed middle of dry-ish malts&wheats, tart-sweet lemons (as in a lambiek ale), pear-ish yeastiness and a fine undertone of burgundy barrel ageing in the form of light tannic woodiness, while belated hop bitterness also sneaks through to linger in the end. Aromatic fruity and intensifyingly dry in the very end of tasting; the more sips I've had, in fact the soapy+tannic mouthfeel intensifies bit by bit as well. More-ish at the end of each sip, that is!
M&D: carbonation-wise, this bottle is really spot'on, showing only softest carbonation to pair with a medium-minus body and a pretty well-tuned, though slightly unusual, flavour. My overall impression of this ale is that the light wine barrel ageing seems to stand side by side with the equally mild flavour, hence a balanced and not bold performance. Knowing not the exact style that this beer is brewed to imitate/represent (or IS there?), I'm entering it here as a "farmhouse ale" simply because of the wild-yeast characters that are still noticeable amidst nice influence of ageing of Burgundy wine barrels (=> Q: but which type of wine exactly??).

Serving type: bottle

08-11-2009 20:15:05 | More by wl0307