Stille Nacht Reserva
De Dolle Brouwers in Diksmuide, West Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Strong Ale Regular|
Score
8.25
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Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 9.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8.5
This is to date the most recent barrel aged (‘Reserva’) edition of Stille Nacht, Dolle Brouwers’ legendary Christmas ale, and the first one to my knowledge to appear in 33 cl bottles instead of 75 cl ones… Aged for two years on barrels which once held red wine. Open, off-white, tiny-bubbled, thin head on an initially clear warm peach blonde robe with lovely orange glow, turning hazy and more brownish-tinged with sediment. Rich bouquet of peaches soaked in brandy, sweat, wet oak wood, overripe pineapple, fermenting apple juice, marmalade, hints of ripe persimmon, acacia honey, chicken stock, vanilla, piccalilli, tawny port and stewed cherry tomatoes. Sweet, fruity onset, estery with lots of pineapple, apricot, persimmon and peach, even ripe Doyenné pear, white grape and lychee; mild sourish undertone, only accentuating the fruitiness. Carbonation remains soft (though not flat), the mouthfeel is full, rounded and vinous, with lovely biscuity, lightly caramelly and brioche-bready, soft malts. Lots of this fruitiness, amplified by the grapeyness that remained in the barrels, is carried onwards to a rich, colourful, vibrant and long finish, in which gentle tannic woodiness and oaky vanillin accentuate the overall complexity; warming port- and somewhat brandy-like alcohol ensues, while all these colourful fruits continue unabatedly. A truly excellent and classy sipper, after – in my view – a few (somewhat) lesser editions with even an acetic bottle here and there, the original glory of the older Stille Nacht Reserva vintages seems to have been rediscovered. Doubtlessly develops even more complexity with age, too. Absolutely delish – I am mouthwatering even by thinking of it again.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bouteille 33cl partagée avec toute l'équipe de El Birrot, Jafre lors de notre dégustation de début d'année 2024. Merci Isaac.
Bière montrant une date de capsule de 06/2023, sans savoir si cela est la mise en bouteille ou le BB. Je suppose que c'est mise en bouteille.
Claire, pâle, col fin blanc peu tenace.
Arôme sur un bouquet généreux de barrique - avec le côté très belge dont pas mal de douceur résiduelle et qcq pointes d'esters fruités. Ici, cette barrique semble vouloir nous emmener vers un côté vin blanc avec un fruité chargé en sucre.
Palais est épais avec un caractère bien belge - et une douceur résiduelle qui rappelle un vin muscat ou catalan de Moscatell - petite touche de pâte d'amande. Les 12% sont quant à eux, bien présents.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Kerstbier Festival. (Barrique 6) Slightly hazy dark golden beer with a white head. Aroma of brett, wood, strong pale malt. Taste of Brett, tart grapes, wood, vineous finish.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
750 ml bottle at share. Pale, white wine look, bubbly, airy head. Aroma is white grapes, wine. Taste is grapes, tart, light sweetness, lots of funk.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
750ml bottle at share from Douglas88. Pale golden pour; big airy, bubbly head. Fruity aroma, tart, floral. Taste is fruity, woody, funky. Full, luscious, decadent
Benzai (22911) reviewed Stille Nacht Reserva 2015 from De Dolle Brouwers 4 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Bottle shared at RBBWG 2023. Orangy color, small white head. Floral aroma up front, herbs spices and a bit dusty. Flavor is green apple peel with bruised parts of an apple. Sour. Tart, too much tart. Hmm. No.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Pours clear, darker blonde. Not much head. Scent is full, red wine and oak, grainy, buttery in a way but not diacetyl. refined character, but heavy and bombastic intensity. Taste is full, malty, refined oakyness, red wine delivers fruityness. Absolutely great in balance, intensity and interesting-ness.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
How: Draught.
Where: MBCC 2023.
Appearance: Dark golden/light amber colour with an off-white head.
Aroma: Malt, yeast, acidic, fruit, caramel, vinous, alcohol, spices.
Body: Medium to full body, low carbonation.
Flavour: Malt, yeast, acidic, fruit, caramel, vinous, alcohol, spices.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
The most recent release in this wonderful series to date, Dolle’s famed Stille Nacht aged on various wine barrels, in this case for more than two years. Bottle straight from the brewery, shared with Craftmember. Moussy, medium thick, slowly diminishing, egg-white head, initially clear amber-hued deep peach blonde colour with visible sparkling, hazy further on. Rich and fascinating bouquet of caramel, lots of vanillin from the oak wood, wooden furniture, ripe peach, green apple, white wine, almond, dusty attic, sweet woodruff, red wine vinegar, elderblossom, calvados, unripe nectarine, grey old cardboard hint, raw beetroot, sour grapes. Sweet as well as sour onset, very fruity with notes of peach, redcurrant, green apple and nectarine, sharpishly carbonated at first though this gradually softens further on. The sour aspect becomes rather sharp at first, reminiscent of malic acid as well as vinegar, green apple- and unripe grape-like – perhaps a bit too acidic and wry in fact, at least in comparison with most other vintages I had in this series (with the notable exception of one single bottle of the 2018 vintage, which had indeed become completely vinegarised, unfortunately). Supple caramelly and soft-bready to even thinly biscuity malts make up for a lot, though, as do these ongoing redcurrant, red plum, apple and grape effects, the latter increasingly unveiling the wine barrel treatment – an aspect also embodied, of course, by strong vanilla-like and dry-tannic woodiness. A light note of earthy hop bitterishness appears in the end along with a rather calvados- and brandy-like alcohol effect, but a red wine flavour pierces through everything, adding further depth and colour; the sour ‘sting’ and the basket of fruits remain very prominent too. Vinous, multi-layered specialty barley wine in Belgian style like its predecessors, tracing back to that first and utterly divine 2000 edition, but indeed a tad too acidic in the vinegary way to be truly great, a feature absent from the ones I had before except for that vinegarised 2018 bottle, as mentioned. I am very curious what further cellaring will do to this edition, I have another bottle to find out, but considering the already sharp sourness in the other one, I fear there is a real risk of it vinegarising as well. One way to find out, I guess, and from the three different bottles I tasted of the previous (2018) edition, I can only conclude that every bottle within the same vintage can be very different so who knows what the other one will taste like when I dig it up from the cellar within a year or two…