Day 6 - Abbey St Martin Cuvée de Noël
After nearly a week of drinking festive ale I've been overpowered by aniseed or alcohol in most of the offerings. I was looking for the sort of beer to relax with -something homely - and I think I've found it.
Cuvée de Noël doesn't blow your socks off with overwhelming tastes or flavours but it's a very drinkable beer which (really importantly) improves as you drink it. You can tell by the label (just a couple or stars and a red trim added to the standard design) that Abbaye de St Martin are taking a considered approach to a Christmas beer.
It's a slightly cloudy, ruby beer with nice medium head. There are mild wheaty aromas; a faint banana sniff and yeast. What they've importantly managed to do is introduce aniseed at a pleasant and not over-powering level. After this week's dark beers I'm delighted at this feature! There's a nice blend of other seasonal spices to give it rounded appeal. It's slightly lacking fizz or sparkle in the mouth but that does make it easy to drink.
In the mouth, the smokiness or woodiness is tough to locate but it is present and a minimal smidgen of clove also shows its face. Whilst some of the flavours are harder to find I shouldn't complain as they're very well balanced. The aftertaste continues in this form and is lovely and sweet.
The more I drunk the beer the more I liked it. If beer had personality this would be a cheery landlord who's got a smile for everyone: it's hard not to like! I'd really recommend this beer if you're trying to convince someone that strong, Belgian beer is the way forward. In fact, I recommend it to you all!
Abbaye de St Martin Cuvée de Noël - 8.5
Christmas rating - 8
http://brunehaut.com/stm4.php
No comments:
Post a Comment