The Rocksanne Reserve
de Garde Brewing

 

 

12/22 bottling, real cool stuff, four years in oak with heaps of mourvedre, these reserve editions have been elite, lucky to have been able to partake in this bottle, its lovely stuff, although maybe not their very vest, some real bitterness and also some sulfur here, tannic and old, complex and awesome, dont get me wrong, but its almost like there is slight fade to this. its the color you want it to be, deep pink with a sparkle and shine at first but then some sediment clouding it up as we work the bottle down, fizzy but not a lot of head, nice color intensity. the aroma and flavor do the same thing, familiar de garde funk with a nice mix of bacterial tartness and old oaken bretty funk, truly wild, and their spontaneous stuff is so distinctive, could pick this out of a crowd as theirs easy, really wood forward in this instance, ahead of the fruit to me, and actually hitting first on the palate too, some iodine to it doing the medical lambic thing, hints of black cherry and raspberry with this grape, some minerals and appreciable terroir to the fruit, skins add tang, cranberry and red currant mouthwatering puckery juiciness, wine-like too of course, grippy and quick finishing, more and more sour as it warms, maybe slightly less balanced there than some of their stuff, a faint vinegar thing and some stomach harshness, mellow as the flavor itself is in that old and woody way. it almost seems like this fruit is past its moment, like four years didnt highlight this the way i expected it to, but im being too critical of something very special, its also quite old in the bottle now too, so this is to be expected at least to some extent. love the fruity complexity, port wine and even nuttiness with the acid to finish, nice palate recall, black pepper, old leather, and lemon. delicious, weird, and a blast to share with the legends while we crushed metal vinyl late night!

edit: same vintage now poured late summer 2025 with a little more time on it, every bit as good as the first bottle. less bitterness and sulfur to me now, more integrated jammy fruit, more sweetness than i recall from the first time around too, obviously wild beer like this changes over time, this seems somewhat dramatic for a shorter period, but its wonderful all over again. fresh plum and lots of wood, body too, super complex and its at its best when its warmed up some. dynamic to say the least, such a joy to drink de garde beers, and thee grape ones have been insane!